How to Play Wordle

Everything you need to guess the word in six tries — plus how to do it in fewer.

The basic rules

Wordle gives you six guesses to find a hidden five-letter word. Every guess must itself be a real word. When you press Enter, each tile changes colour to tell you something:

Green — the letter is in the word and in that exact position.

Yellow — the letter is in the word, but somewhere else.

Grey — the letter is not in the word at all.

The part people get wrong

Grey is the most valuable colour and the most ignored. A guess that comes back entirely grey has just eliminated five letters at once, which is often more progress than a lucky single green. Beginners treat an all-grey row as a wasted turn; strong players treat it as a good one.

Hard mode

Turn on hard mode in Settings and every clue becomes binding: greens must stay where they are and yellows must appear somewhere in your next guess. It removes the option of a throwaway probe word, so you have to deduce rather than explore.

Tips to win in fewer guesses

• Start strong. Open with common letters — CRANE, SLATE, TRACE.
• Spend guess two on new letters. Do not re-test what you already know.
• Mind repeats. Letters can appear twice, as in GEESE — an easy thing to overlook.
• Learn the endings. A great many answers finish in -ER, -LY, -ND or -GHT.
• Still stuck? The Wordle Solver lists every word that still fits.

Ready? Play the daily Wordle, go endless with unlimited mode, or read our strategy guides.