Wordle: How to Master the Game Using the 6 Best Starting Words and the Best Cheat Tip Ever

I don’t need any other distractions in my life.

You don’t need any other distractions in your life.

There are too many distractions already, aren’t there?

Wordle was all over the news.

I repeat. I don’t need any other distractions in my life.

“Have you played Wordle?” “Have you played Wordle?” “Have you played Wordle?” “Have you played Wordle?” “Have you played Wordle?” “Have you played Wordle?” “Have you played Wordle?”

Okay. Okay. Okay.

What is it?

There was this guy who loved his girlfriend so much he made up a game for her during the lockdown so she wouldn’t be bored. It’s a simple game. You have to guess a five-letter word from scratch.

If you get the right letter in the wrong place, it turns yellow. If you get the right letter in the right place, it turns green.

Letters can be used twice.

I don’t need any other distractions in my life.

Yeah, me too. But Wordle only allows you to play it once a day. It’s addictive. But only for the few minutes, you take to play it. So chill.

In fact, if you pick a time when you need a break, Wordle can provide you with two or three minutes when your brain isn’t thinking about life, work or relationships (other problems are available). And that can feel like a week on a beach in Dubai.

Mastering the game

You need a good starting word.

You need to pick five unique letters and preferably the ones in most common usage.

There is no point picking MYRRH or FLUFF. Unless you are super lucky, in all likelihood, you will not hit any of those letters,

E is the most common vowel and T, N, S, R, H, L, and D are the most common of the consonants.

For your first guess, it makes sense to choose words with two or three vowels:

ASHEN or DEATH or EARTH or HARED

If you score a vowel or two, your second word can move on to hit more consonants:

NORTH or SLOTH

The second word should be letters you haven’t used already.

Unless the evil Wordle fairy is playing a practical joke on you, you are going to hit two or three of your letters in those first two words.

If you look at the screenshot, I got R on the first try and O and H on the second. All three were in the wrong place.

It was enough to make a ROUGH guess.

On my third try, I had the letters R O U and H. All four were in the wrong place. I needed to mix these up and add another letter I hadn’t used before.

This is where the best cheat tip comes in, although I could have used it for the third guess.

You need to download the app Word Breaker. It’s free.

Word breaker is a crossword/scrabble helper. Great for anagrams and beating your bestie on Words With Friends. Again, only if you are inclined.

The box on Word Breaker allows you to put in the letters you have; R O U H and you have one letter you don’t know, so, you put in a question mark (?) for that.

A list of choices pops up when you press search.

HOUR

HOURI

HOURS

HUMOR

Hour only has four letters. I’ve never heard of HOURI and HOURS has an S I’ve already used and can’t be in the answer because it hasn’t been highlighted in yellow or green.

The next word is HUMOR. Et Voila, I tried it and it was correct.

It’s a simple way of getting the answer in the quickest number of guesses.

Please be casual about your reveal:

"This is my last try. I need to get the word right to keep my streak going."

"Let me see. Wow! You are so close."

"Whaddaya mean?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Have you got it?"

"Sure, I get it most days by my third or fourth go."

"Damn!"