Wordle Solver.
Helper. Finder.

How to use this Wordle helper

A Wordle helper takes the colored feedback from your last guess and instantly shows every 5-letter word that still fits. Type the clues you have, get a filtered candidate list, pick the next word that tests the most new information.

The solver above filters 2,325 curated common 5-letter words and 21,953 valid Wordle guesses on every keystroke. The list shrinks in real time as you type — no submit button, no waiting, nothing sent to a server.

1. Type your green letters — in their correct positions. The list narrows to words that match those positions exactly.
2. Add a yellow row — for any letter that's in the answer but in the wrong slot. Type the letter where you tried it — we exclude that exact position. Stack rows if you've ruled out more than one position for the same letter.
3. Drop your gray letters — into the absent box. We remove every word that contains any of them.
4. Pick your next guess — from the remaining candidates. The fewer words remaining, the more likely the next guess wins.

That's it. Most players solve in 3–4 guesses with a Wordle finder of this kind — sometimes 2.

How a Wordle solver works under the hood

Every word in the game's dictionary is checked against four constraints: position-locked greens, position-excluded yellows, present-letter requirements, and global absent letters. The result is the set of words that could still be the answer given the feedback you've seen.

The interesting trick isn't filtering — it's information gain. When the candidate list is still long, the best next guess often isn't a candidate. A "scout" word that tests five fresh letters can shrink the pool faster than a near-match that only resolves one square.

We expose this with the live letter-frequency panel: as your candidate list shrinks, we surface the letters that appear most often in the words still possible. Target those letters with your next guess and you'll cut the pool faster than guessing by feel.

What's in our word list

The common words list is the curated set of 2,325 plausible Wordle answers — words like SLATE, CRANE, and ROBOT that show up in everyday English.

The valid guesses list adds the 21,953 accepted-but-rarer words like CAULK, BAIZE, and ZORIL. You can submit them, but they almost never appear as the day's answer.

If you only care about likely answers, switch on Common words only in the solver. If you want every word the game will accept (useful as a "scout" guess to burn through obscure letters), leave it off.

Browse the full lists by pattern: 5-letter words starting with any letter, words ending with a letter, or words containing specific letters.

Best Wordle starting words

A good opener is a word with five distinct, high-frequency letters — no repeats, plenty of vowels, and at least one of S/T/R/N. We score every five-unique-letter candidate by how many answers its letters cover across the full curated list. Top five:

The score is the sum of how many answers each unique letter appears in — a higher score means the word's letters cover more of the answer space. IRATE edges the field, but the differences are small. Pick one, use it forever, and read the full ranked list of 12 for the deeper analysis.

Wordle strategy: tips and tricks

Strong players follow a three-step pattern. It looks like this:

1. Guess 1 — fixed opener. Same word every day. See above.
2. Guess 2 — scout, don't refine. Even after a green or yellow, your second guess should test 4–5 brand-new letters. This shrinks the candidate pool faster than chasing a near-match.
3. Guess 3 — commit. With ~10 letters of feedback, the candidate list is usually under 20 words. Pick the most plausible one from the remaining set and play it.

A few tactical add-ons:

• Don't waste guesses confirming. If you have a green T in slot 1 and 30 candidates, don't play another T-word — play one that splits the candidates.
• Watch for double letters. Wordle uses repeats more than people expect (CHEER, ARRAY, OFFER). If your yellow keeps reappearing, the answer might use that letter twice.
• Save tricky letters for late. Q, J, X, Z appear in fewer than 4% of answers combined. Don't burn an early guess on them.

For the full framework, including frequency tables and recovery plays, read our complete strategy guide.

Wordle hard mode

In hard mode, every revealed clue must be reused in subsequent guesses: if you got a green E in slot 4, every later guess must have E in slot 4. Yellow letters must appear somewhere too.

This kills "scout" guesses. You can't burn a fresh five letters to gather information — you're forced to commit to the constraints you already have.

If you play hard mode, the solver still works, but lean on the Common words only filter and accept that you'll occasionally land at guess 5 or 6 instead of 3. The bar isn't speed — it's not breaking your streak.

What makes this Wordle finder different

• Yellow-letter position tracking. Most solvers only ask "is this letter in the word?" Ours lets you mark the exact position you've ruled out — the difference between a 30-word and a 4-word candidate list.
• Live letter-frequency hints. As candidates shrink, we show which letters appear most often in the words still possible, so your next guess targets the highest-information ones.
• Runs entirely in your browser. No login, no tracking of your puzzle, no server round-trips. Type fast, see results faster.
• No paywall, no email gate, no "premium" tier. It's a tool, not a funnel.

Wordle variants and spinoffs

If you've burned through today's puzzle and want more, the daily-word-game ecosystem is bigger than it looks:

• Quordle — four Wordles at once, nine guesses total. Same rules, four times the bookkeeping.
• Octordle — eight boards, thirteen guesses. For people who think Quordle is too easy.
• NYT Connections — group 16 words into four categories. Different game entirely, same daily-puzzle muscle.
• NYT Strands — a themed word search with a "spangram." Newer, slower-paced.
• NYT Mini Crossword — five-minute crossword. Often the warmup before Wordle.

Our solver is built for classic Wordle, but the strategy patterns — fixed openers, information-gain scouting, letter-frequency awareness — transfer to most of these.

What is Wordle?

Wordle is a once-a-day word puzzle: guess a five-letter word in six tries. After each guess, every letter is colored green (right letter, right slot), yellow (right letter, wrong slot), or gray (not in the answer). Everyone who plays gets the same word that day, which is what makes the share-grid screenshots feel like a shared event rather than a personal score.

Software engineer Josh Wardle built it for his partner in 2021 and released it publicly in October of that year. The New York Times acquired it in early 2022 in the low seven figures and folded it into NYT Games alongside the Crossword and Spelling Bee. It's now the most-played daily word game in the world, with millions of completions every day.

The puzzle resets at midnight local time. If you're stuck on today's Wordle, type your clues into the solver above. If you want to play better on average, work through our strategy guides — they're built from real data on every past answer.

Frequently asked questions

Is using a Wordle helper cheating? That's between you and your streak. Some people use a solver only when they're one guess from losing; some use it every day to learn high-value words; some never touch one. The game itself doesn't track or care. We'd say: if it makes the puzzle fun, it's not cheating.

What's the best starting word for Wordle? By letter coverage across the curated answer list, IRATE narrowly edges LATER, ALTER, ALERT. The differences are small — pick one with five distinct, high-frequency letters and stick with it.

How many guesses do you get in Wordle? Six. If you don't get the word in six, you lose that day's puzzle and your streak resets.

When does Wordle reset? Midnight in your local time zone. The puzzle is the same word for everyone in a given local day.

Is Wordle free? Yes. The base game is free on the New York Times website and app. Some related games sit behind the NYT Games subscription, but classic Wordle does not.

Can I play past Wordle puzzles? Officially, only NYT Games subscribers get the archive. Unofficial mirrors exist but go up and down. The solver above works on any 5-letter-word puzzle in the same format, archive or not.

Does the New York Times remove words from Wordle? Yes — after acquiring the game, the NYT pruned a handful of obscure or culturally loaded words from the answer list, though many remain in the accepted-guesses list. Our common-words list reflects the post-NYT curated set.