Tips for five-letter word puzzles

Games where you guess a hidden five-letter word in a limited number of tries reward a systematic approach more than luck. These tips work for Wordle-style games in general.

Pick a strong first guess

A good opening word uses common letters and different letters in every position. Words made of letters such as E, A, R, O, T, L, I, S and N tend to reveal the most information. Avoid openers with double letters, since a repeated letter tells you less. Whatever word you choose, keep using it or a small set: you will learn how it tends to reveal vowels and common consonants.

Use your second guess to cover new letters

If the first guess leaves you with little, play a second word that uses five fresh letters, even if you know it cannot be the answer. Covering ten common letters in two guesses narrows the answer a lot.

Track positions, not just letters

Yellow letters tell you a letter is present but in a different place. Use that to rule out positions. If R was yellow in the third position, try it first, second, fourth or fifth next time. Green letters are locked in.

Think about common patterns

Many five-letter words end in -S, -ED, -ER, -LY or -Y. Common start patterns include ST-, CH-, TR-, BL- and GR-. Words rarely have three vowels in a row.

Beware of the near-miss trap

Sometimes your clues fit many words that differ in only one letter, such as _IGHT, which could be light, might, night, right, sight or tight. If you keep guessing one at a time, you can run out of tries. Instead, play a word that tests several of the candidate first letters at once, even if it is not itself a candidate.

Use a helper to review, not to cheat

After a puzzle, you can paste letters into the unscrambler, set Word length to 5 under More options, and set Contains to a letter you know. It helps you learn which words you overlooked. Whether to use a helper during a puzzle is up to you and the rules of the game you play.