Best Wordle Starting Words

RAISE, SLATE and ARISE lead our ranking of 2,765 common words, scored by how many answers each one leaves on average.

ranking

Top 25 Wordle Openers, Ranked by Our Solver

Lower “avg. answers left” is better. Tap a column to sort by it. Every number comes from the same engine as our Wordle solver.

Top 25 openers, scored against our common answer words

Rank	Word
1	RAISE	74.1	132	203	5.88
2	SLATE	90.2	154	270	5.82
3	ARISE	79.0	129	203	5.81
4	IRATE	80.6	123	238	5.78
5	STARE	89.6	137	283	5.78
6	ORATE	80.1	127	236	5.77
7	CRATE	93.4	149	304	5.76
8	SANER	84.6	142	274	5.76
9	CARET	93.7	149	304	5.76
10	TRACE	94.7	152	304	5.76
11	AROSE	81.3	125	226	5.75
12	TASER	87.1	140	283	5.75
13	SNARE	88.5	139	274	5.74
14	LEAST	97.3	145	270	5.72
15	LATER	86.4	141	253	5.70
16	STALE	94.7	143	270	5.70
17	CRANE	99.6	146	324	5.69
18	ALTER	88.0	135	253	5.68
19	ALERT	92.4	138	253	5.68
20	SLIER	94.1	136	270	5.66
21	PRATE	102.3	142	329	5.66
22	LASER	87.9	132	262	5.64
23	REACT	100.4	141	304	5.64
24	AISLE	92.6	126	229	5.64
25	PARSE	105.4	147	332	5.63

test your word

Test Your Starting Word

Type any five-letter word to see its score and where it ranks among 2,765 common openers.

method

How We Score an Opener

For each candidate we play it against all 2,765 common answer words and record the colors it would get. Answers that produce the same colors stay together in a group; after your first row, you are left with the group your answer is in. A strong opener makes many small groups.

Avg. answers left: the size of the group you can expect to end up in.
Color patterns: how many different groups the word can produce.
Worst case: the largest group, usually the all-gray result.
Bits: expected information, the measure we rank by.

vowel openers

Why ADIEU and AUDIO Are Weaker Than They Look

Vowel-heavy openers are popular, but the numbers are clear. ADIEU leaves about 145 answers on average and AUDIO about 216, compared with 74 for RAISE and 100 for CRANE. AUDIO's worst case is 501 words.

The reason: almost every answer contains A, E or O, so learning that they are there tells you little. Common consonants such as R, S, T, L and N appear in some answers and not others, and that is exactly what splits the list.

second word

Pairing a Second Word

Some players always use the same two words. A good partner shares no letters with the opener, so the two rows test ten different letters. The best partners in our list:

Opener	Best second word	Patterns after two rows	Worst case
RAISE	CLOUT	1073	27
SLATE	MINOR	1094	26
CRANE	SPLIT	1167	42

A fixed second word is a shortcut, though: after a lucky first row, the solver's next-guess suggestions will usually beat it.

faq

Frequently asked questions

What is the best Wordle starting word?

In our ranking, RAISE is the best opener: against our 2,765 common answer words it leaves about 74 on average. SLATE and ARISE are close behind. Any word in the top ten is a strong start; the difference between them is far smaller than the difference a good second guess makes.

Is ADIEU a good starting word?

Not really. ADIEU finds vowels, but vowels are the easy part: nearly every answer has one. It leaves about 145 answers on average, against 74 for RAISE, because consonants like R, S, T and L split the list much better.

How are the starting words ranked?

Each opener is scored against every common answer word. We count how many different color patterns it can produce and how evenly the answers spread across them (expected information, in bits). More bits means fewer words left on average.

Does the best starting word change in hard mode?

The first guess is the same in hard mode, since there are no clues yet. Hard mode only limits later guesses, which must reuse the letters you have found.

Should I use the same starting word every day?

Using one strong opener every day is a sound habit: you learn what its colors mean and plan your second word faster. Switching between top openers costs very little if you prefer variety.

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