Best Wordle starting words, ranked by data
Most "best starting word" lists are vibes. This one is arithmetic: we took every one of the 1,864 official Wordle answers ever published, counted how often each letter appears in each of the five positions, then scored all 14,855 valid guess words against that distribution. A word's score is the sum of its letters' positional frequencies — repeated letters count once, since a double letter reveals less new information.
The top 10 starting words
| Rank | Word | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SOARE | 1,275 | Best overall blend of vowels and high-frequency consonants |
| 2 | SAINE | 1,224 | Tests two vowels plus the two most common ending letters |
| 3 | SLANE | 1,220 | Strong opener for hard mode — keeps greens in place |
| 4 | SAICE | 1,198 | Covers E and A, the two most common letters in answers |
| 5 | SLATE | 1,188 | Excellent second-guess alternative to our #1 pick |
| 6 | SOAVE | 1,183 | Solid coverage of the top positional letters |
| 7 | SHARE | 1,167 | Solid coverage of the top positional letters |
| 8 | SHALE | 1,166 | Solid coverage of the top positional letters |
| 9 | CRANE | 1,163 | Solid coverage of the top positional letters |
| 10 | COATE | 1,148 | Solid coverage of the top positional letters |
Score = sum of each unique letter's frequency in that position across all past answers. Higher means the guess is more likely to produce greens and yellows on average.
The most common letter in each position
Position matters enormously. E is the most common letter overall, but it dominates specifically at the end of words — which is why openers ending in E perform so well.
| Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slot 1 | S276 | C165 | B143 |
| Slot 2 | A235 | O232 | R215 |
| Slot 3 | A271 | O210 | I201 |
| Slot 4 | E242 | N145 | I140 |
| Slot 5 | E367 | Y259 | T210 |
Overall letter frequency
The two-word opener strategy
Unless your first guess lands three or more colored tiles, the mathematically strongest second guess usually isn't a candidate answer — it's a word that tests five brand-new letters. Based on our rankings, the best disjoint pair is SOARE followed by a second vowel-heavy word: together they probe ten different letters, including four of the five vowels and the most common consonants, in just two guesses.
After those two rows you'll typically know two to four letters of the answer, and thesolvercan take it from there. The trade-off: this strategy almost never solves the puzzle in two, but it dramatically reduces the nightmare scenarios — those -IGHT or -OUND boards where five words share four letters.
If you play in hard mode (where revealed letters must be reused), skip the two-word opener and instead follow our #1 word with the highest-ranked candidate that fits your clues.
Put it into practice
Try today's puzzle with one of these openers, then come back forspoiler-free hintsif you get stuck. For deeper strategy, read ourten Wordle tips.