Daily games · Updated 2026-11-01

NYT Wordle guide: turn every guess into information

Learn how Wordle's clues and guess count work, then use a practical strategy for ordinary and Hard Mode.

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Wordle gives you six attempts to find a five-letter answer. Each guess returns a row of colored tiles: green means the letter is correct and in the right place, yellow means it belongs elsewhere, and gray means it is absent. The New York Times confirms the six-guess limit and color rules in its official Wordle help page.

Today's spoiler-safe hints

What your guesses score

Wordle does not award a points total for each letter. Your result is whether you solved it, how many guesses you needed, and whether the streak continues. That makes a guess valuable in two ways: it can name the answer, or it can reveal enough information to make later answers easier to distinguish. A word that looks like a likely answer is not automatically the strongest guess if it repeats letters you already tested and teaches you little.

Colors also need to be read as counts, not just yes-or-no signals. If a guess contains two copies of a letter but the answer contains only one, the game can mark one copy yellow or green and the other gray. A gray tile therefore rules out that letter only to the extent that the green and yellow tiles have not already accounted for the answer's copies. The answer list can include some plurals and past-tense forms with spelling changes, while ordinary added S, ES, or ED endings are excluded as answers; the official examples include GEESE, FRIED, and SPENT.

A reliable solving routine

1. Choose a useful opener. Use a valid word with several common letters and no repeated letter. Familiar starters such as SLATE or CRANE are fine, but no single opener guarantees a win. Your goal is to get a varied first set of clues.
2. Record constraints. Mark green letters in fixed slots, list yellow letters that must move, and cross out confirmed absent letters. If a letter repeated in the guess, note how many copies the colors imply.
3. Keep plausible answers. After the first row, think of words that obey every clue. Do not settle on a word just because it fits one green pattern; several common words can share that pattern.
4. Use a probe when the list is broad. If two or more candidate answers remain, play a valid word that tests letters which separate them. A probe may be unlikely to be the answer, but it can keep you from burning a later turn on a blind pick.
5. Switch to solving when the list is narrow. Once the clues leave only a few candidates, guess one that fits and consider how the feedback will distinguish the rest if it is wrong.
6. Check duplicates before the last turns. When a pattern seems to reject every familiar word, test whether the answer might use a repeated vowel or consonant.

This is a practical form of information theory: a probe is useful when its possible color patterns divide the remaining answers. Research shows that the best strategy depends on the goal and assumed answer list, so no published “best word” is universal.

Common mistakes

• Treating gray as “no copy anywhere.” A duplicate in the guess can produce one colored tile and one gray tile for the same letter. Keep the copy count in view.
• Reusing a yellow letter in its old position. It is known to be somewhere in the answer, but not there. Move it.
• Locking in the first plausible word. Check its other letters against all prior rows before you submit it.
• Assuming the answer list is perfectly predictable. Editors curate the game, and the official help page describes the answer rules rather than promising a fixed repeating list.

Tips that help in Hard Mode

Hard Mode requires each revealed hint to be used in subsequent guesses. It is a useful constraint if you want every turn to build directly on the clues, but it can make a choice between similar answers harder: you may have to stay inside a narrow pattern before you know which ending is right. In normal mode, a deliberate probe can test several new letters while preserving the greens you already know. Choose the setting for the kind of challenge you enjoy, and remember that it changes what guesses are legal.

After the puzzle, review whether you lost time to a broad candidate list or a repeated letter. Write down the remaining candidates next time, and use a probe when it will separate them. NYT community discussions show experienced players disagree about probing, so treat it as a choice of risk and style, not a universal rule.

Similar games

Try Connections for word associations, Strands for a themed letter grid, or Worldle if you would rather reason from a country outline. The Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee offer different ways to work with short words.

Play with friends

On a stream, ask viewers to suggest a starting word before the first guess, then keep later discussion to clues rather than answer spoilers. Share the color grid only after solving; the grid conveys your route without posting the answer. If you want a gentle hint, use the separate spoiler-safe daily Wordle hint page instead of searching for the solution.