Top Best Starting Words for Wordle (Scientifically Proven)

by

Wordle is a daily word-guessing puzzle where each guess yields colored feedback (green/yellow/gray) for letters. Because you have only six tries, the very first word you pick can drastically narrow down the possibilities. In fact, analyses show the outcome “depends heavily on the starting word”. For example, choosing a word like START (with two T’s) is wasteful – you can’t learn anything new from a repeated letter. In contrast, a well‑chosen opener will (ideally) reveal common letters or eliminate many non‑answers right away. In other words, your first guess should maximize information about the hidden word.

To do this, experts recommend starting with a word that uses five unique letters and covers the most frequent letters in Wordle’s solution list. Many strategy guides suggest focusing on vowels and high‑frequency consonants (like S, R, T, L, N) so you learn quickly which of those appear. Popular vowel‑heavy guesses like ADIEU or AUDIO will quickly reveal the puzzle’s vowels, but studies question whether that is truly optimal. Instead, an “information theory” approach favors balancing vowels and consonants. Words that span common letters give both a good chance of a green/yellow hit and rule out many non‑answers if they miss.

In short, the first guess matters because it sets the stage for all later clues. A strong opener should avoid wasted repeats and cover as many likely letters as possible. The better the first word, the fewer guesses you’ll need on average.

Criteria of a Good Starting Word

When choosing your opening word, here are the key criteria experts use:

  • Unique letters (no repeats): Each letter slot should test a new letter. A word with duplicates (like START, STATE, SPEED) “wastes” an opportunity to check another letter. Ideally, all five letters are different.
  • High-frequency letters: Use letters that appear most often in Wordle answers. Analysis of the 2,309 official answers shows the top ten letters are E, S, A, O, R, I, L, T, N, U (in that order). Your starter should include as many of these as possible. For example, AROSE uses A, R, O, S, E – five of the top ten letters.
  • Vowel/consonant mix: Good starters often include 2–3 vowels. Vowels are relatively common in Wordle words: A and O are especially frequent, and E appears often (particularly in later positions). But you also want common consonants (like S, R, T, L, N) in the mix. Words that cover all five vowels are often too many (since Y behaves like a vowel only half the time). A balanced word (e.g. 2 vowels + 3 consonants) is usually best.
  • Common positions: Consider where letters often appear. In Wordle’s list, S is the first letter about 15.8% of the time. The letter A is very common in 2nd and 3rd positions, while E dominates the 4th and 5th slots. (Wordle also rarely ends in “S” – less than 2% of answers) So a strong starter might put S, A, or E in those positions. For example, SLATE has S first and E last – both frequent placements.
  • Maximize information gain: Formally, a good guess splits the list of remaining solutions roughly in half. In information theory terms, you want high “entropy.” A balanced word tests letters that are common enough to give hits (high probability) but still informative when absent. For example, SOARE (a somewhat obscure word meaning “a young hawk”) has very high entropy: if any letter in SOARE is present, you learn a lot, but if none are, you rule out many answers. Studies have found SOARE yields about 5.9 bits of information (the space of words shrinks by a factor of ~59% after playing it). In practice, that means your second guess will be based on very few letters, guiding you quickly toward the solution.

These criteria combine to favor words with lots of common, distinct letters. For instance, one analysis notes that playing words containing “E, A, R, O, T, L, I, S, U, N” (the ten commonest letters) is effective. Notably, many top strategies use two opening words to cover all these: one example is AROSE followed by UNLIT. Together they use all five vowels and hit 8 of the 10 most frequent letters.

Statistical Analysis of Wordle’s Word List

Researchers have mined Wordle’s answer list to back up these intuitions with data. A few key findings from those studies are:

  • Letter frequencies: Counting each letter only once per word, about 89.5% of answers contain E, and 70–80% contain A, R, I, or O. In fact, the ten most common letters (E, S, A, O, R, I, L, T, N, U) together appear in over 67% of all letters in the answer list. By contrast, rare letters like J, K, Q, X, Z appear in very few words.
  • Starting letters: Over 15% of all Wordle answers begin with S, making it by far the most common first letter. (The next most common starts are C, B, T, P, A, F – each above 5%). This is why SLATE (starting with S) and similar words are often recommended.
  • Vowel placement: The second and third letters of Wordle answers are frequently vowels. In fact, A and O lead the list in the 2nd position (each >5% of words), and in both 2nd and 3rd positions most of the top letters are vowels (A, E, I, O, U, plus R or N). The 4th letter is dominated by E (in ~15% of words) along with N, S, A, L, I, R, C, T, O. Knowing this, you might choose a starter that puts A or O in the 2nd/3rd slot and an E later on (as SLATE and CRANE do).
  • End letters: Surprisingly, Wordle words almost never end in S (under 2% of answers)– unlike general English (where S is often the last letter). Instead, the most common final letters in Wordle answers are E, Y, T, R, L, H, N, D (each over 5%). This means that guessing SLATE (ending in E) or CRANE (ending in E) covers a likely terminal letter, whereas ending in S would usually be wasted.
  • Starting-letter statistics (summary): One Wordle analysis site summarizes: “S” is the starting letter in 15.81% of solutions, more than any other letter. “A” is the most common 2nd and 3rd letter, while “E” is the most common 4th and 5th letter. (It also notes that E appears in 10.65% of all solutions, and R is the most common consonant overall). All of these facts reinforce the strategy of targeting S, A, E and the other frequent letters in a starting guess.

By contrast, some beloved guesses like ADIEU do not cover many of these big letters. ADIEU has only A and I from the top ten, missing S, R, O, T, L, N, etc. Letter‐frequency analyses explicitly advise against such choices. For example, one author comments “Hint: it’s not PIOUS or ADIEU” – instead he finds AROSE or SOARE as best. In short, the data-driven view is to not waste slots on low-frequency letters or duplicates; focus on the ones Wordle uses most.

Top Scientifically‑Backed Starting Words (Ranked)

Putting it all together, exhaustive computer analyses have produced ranked lists of the best opening words. In “easy” mode (normal Wordle rules), one exhaustive search of all possible first guesses yields this top-10 list (average guesses required):

  1. TARSE – Average ~3.414 guesses. This word packs T, A, R, S, E – all very frequent letters.
  2. SALET – Average ~3.419. SALET uses S, A, L, E, T (same letters as SLATE just shuffled). MIT researchers found SALET is slightly better (≈1% improvement) than SLATE.
  3. REAST – Average ~3.420. (A close anagram of ASTER, covering R, E, A, S, T.)
  4. CRATE, SLATE, TRACE – Each average ~3.421 (tied). These words all use C/R/A/T/E/S/L; they are essentially the same set of letters, just arranged differently.
  5. CRANE – Average ~3.422. A very popular choice, CRANE includes C, R, A, N, E. It appears in the top-10 list just behind the above group.
  6. CARLE – Average ~3.425. (C, A, R, L, E – similar letters as CRANE and SLATE.)

All these words share the properties above: they have no repeated letters, include A/E, and pack in S, R, T, C, L, N etc. Notably, TARSE edges them all out by a hair in the average-guesses metric. (In Hard mode, where you must use revealed clues, SALET is ranked #1, but for most casual players the normal mode ranking is key.)

Beyond the top 8 above, other strong candidates commonly cited are:

  • AROSE (or its anagram SOARE): These contain all five letters A, R, O, S, E – five of the top six letters. A statistical analysis explicitly named AROSE (and SOARE) as the best opener, yielding roughly 67% of all letters across two guesses.
  • SLATE/SALET/ROATE/STARE: These are often mentioned by Wordle strategists. For example, a WordsRated report lists SLATE, SALET, ROATE, STARE as some of the best alternative starters. Each of these words uses 3–4 of the top letters and is similar in makeup to the ones above.
  • CRANE (already in the top list) along with TRACE, CARTE, CARNE, SLANE: Many anagrams of the above letters appear among the top tier. (For instance, TRACE, CARTE, and CRATE all tied at #4 in that analysis.

Importantly, the differences between these leading words are minute – a few thousandths of a guess in the average. In practical terms, nearly any of the above openers gives you an excellent start. The data shows they all solve most puzzles by 4 guesses or sooner. One should not infer that TARSE is “magically always better” than SLATE in every play; rather, it has a slight statistical edge under an optimal strategy.

For completeness, we note that MIT’s analysis (reported in the media) confirms these findings. The MIT team found SALET yielded an average of 3.421 guesses (better than AUDIO or CRANE) and was about 1% more efficient than SLATE. So even leading tech analysis (and Wordle’s own solver, WordleBot) have converged on the same set of top words.

Ranked list summary: TARSE and SALET lead the field (3.414–3.419 avg), with REAST, CRATE/SLATE/TRACE close behind (~3.420–3.421), then CRANE (3.422) and similar words. Words like AROSE/SOARE are nearly as good in practice. Many of these have been verified by multiple sources of analysis.

Comparing Popular Starting Words

While the above list is data-driven, let’s compare some familiar choices by name:

  • CRANE: One of the most popular opening words among casual players. Its letters (C, R, A, N, E) are very common, which is why it ranks well (about 7th in one analysis with avg 3.422). It covers both vowels and consonants, but misses S and T. In practice, CRANE is a solid, “safe” choice. It’s not far behind TARSE/SALET on efficiency, but it is slightly behind according to the exhaustive computations.
  • SLATE: Another fan favorite, containing S, L, A, T, E. In the ranked list above, SLATE tied for #4 (avg ~3.421). WordleBot even recommended SLATE after an update, and a Forbes report noted that SLATE was a leading guess. However, MIT’s careful search found SALET (same letters) to be about 1% better. In short, SLATE is among the very best; any difference with SALET/TARSE is extremely small.
  • ADIEU: Often touted on social media because it quickly checks A, I, E, U. But the data say ADIEU is not one of the top starters. First, it contains only one of the top-10 letters (A, I, E, U – D and I are relatively common vowels, but it has no S, R, T, L, N). Second, information-theory analysis explicitly points out that ADIEU (and PIOUS) are not optimal. In fact, the quoted analysis says “Hint: it’s not PIOUS or ADIEU,” suggesting better options like AROSE. In practice, using ADIEU often fails to reveal enough of the more frequent consonants, meaning you might need an extra guess to recover. Most expert lists do not rank ADIEU near the top.
  • AUDIO, IRATE, etc.: Other vowels-first candidates behave similarly to ADIEU. They may give you vowel hits early, but a balanced word usually solves just as quickly on average.

In summary, CRANE and SLATE are very good (and easier to remember for many players), but they are essentially “tied” with other top words like TARSE or TRACE in efficiency. ADIEU, while common on forums, is generally outperformed by words that include more consonants. The best evidence suggests you should pick the word that maximizes distinct, common letters rather than just vowels.

Conclusion

Wordle is ultimately a game of deduction, and the first guess sets the stage. Based on statistical studies and computer analyses, we can summarize the best practices:

  • Use a word with five distinct letters. This ensures you test the maximum number of different letters in your first move.
  • Cover common letters and vowels. Aim to include most of the high-frequency letters (E, S, A, O, R, I, L, T, N, U). For example, TARSE (T, A, R, S, E) checks 4 of the top 5 letters. AROSE checks all five of A, R, O, S, E.
  • Balance information gain and hit rate. You want enough common letters that you likely get some green/yellow, but you also want to eliminate as many possibilities as possible. In practice, words like SLATE, TRACE, CRANE, ROATE strike this balance.

To maximize your advantage, you can choose any of the top-ranked words above. For example, TARSE, SALET, REAST, CRATE/SLATE/TRACE, and CRANE are all excellent openers. Many Wordle experts now actually start with TARSE or SALET, but CRANE and SLATE remain very strong and familiar choices. If you prefer a vowel focus, AROSE or SOARE are solid – they were identified as ideal by letter-frequency analysis.

Finally, remember that the first word is only the beginning. After your opener, adapt: use the pattern of green/yellow to guide your next guess (also choosing a word that maximizes new information). Analysts suggest your second guess should similarly cover remaining high-frequency letters. In optimal play, the right first and second guesses will usually leave just 1–2 possibilities, solving the puzzle by the third or fourth try on average.

In conclusion, the “scientifically proven” best starting words are those that fit these criteria. By using a statistically strong opener like TARSE, SALET, SLATE, TRACE, or AROSE, you give yourself the best chance to solve the Wordle in the fewest guesses. These recommendations are grounded in analysis of Wordle’s answer list and information theory, so they’re reliable rather than mere opinion.

Happy puzzling!

Leave a Comment