Best Wordle Starting Words (Ranked With Data)

Top 30 Wordle starting words

Sorted by the average number of answers still possible after the first guess. Lower is better. Click a word for its definition.

#	Avg. answers left	Worst case	Patterns	Any green	Greens / yellows	Possible answer
1	60.4	195	126	44%	0.54 / 1.25	Guess only
2	61.0	168	132	44%	0.55 / 1.21	Yes
3	61.3	173	128	44%	0.54 / 1.23	Guess only
4	62.3	183	127	50%	0.66 / 1.11	Guess only
5	63.7	168	123	41%	0.55 / 1.21	Yes
6	63.8	194	124	40%	0.51 / 1.27	Yes
7	63.9	195	127	40%	0.51 / 1.28	Guess only
8	65.3	173	125	41%	0.50 / 1.27	Guess only
9	66.0	183	121	40%	0.54 / 1.23	Yes
10	67.1	195	129	44%	0.55 / 1.17	Guess only
11	67.5	196	128	36%	0.43 / 1.35	Guess only
12	67.7	196	134	35%	0.47 / 1.31	Guess only
13	69.8	196	134	34%	0.43 / 1.35	Guess only
14	69.9	168	116	32%	0.36 / 1.40	Guess only
15	69.9	205	108	34%	0.38 / 1.38	Guess only
16	69.9	176	112	32%	0.38 / 1.40	Guess only
17	70.0	196	128	32%	0.42 / 1.35	Yes
18	70.1	219	132	43%	0.58 / 1.14	Yes
19	70.2	196	134	32%	0.45 / 1.33	Yes
20	71.1	219	132	43%	0.58 / 1.14	Yes
21	71.2	195	128	31%	0.43 / 1.36	Guess only
22	71.3	221	148	48%	0.58 / 1.10	Guess only
23	71.3	227	134	33%	0.46 / 1.31	Guess only
24	71.3	227	133	42%	0.57 / 1.19	Yes
25	71.5	227	128	35%	0.42 / 1.35	Guess only
26	71.6	221	147	47%	0.62 / 1.06	Yes
27	71.6	196	131	32%	0.40 / 1.38	Yes
28	71.6	168	114	30%	0.37 / 1.39	Guess only
29	71.7	205	118	33%	0.39 / 1.36	Guess only
30	71.8	227	147	37%	0.47 / 1.30	Guess only

Popular openers vs. the best

How the words people actually use stack up against ROATE.

Rank	Answers left	vs. #1
#2	61.0	+1%
#5	63.7	+5%
#6	63.8	+6%
#9	66.0	+9%
#19	70.2	+16%
#24	71.3	+18%
#26	71.6	+19%
#36	72.9	+21%
#44	74.0	+23%
#53	75.4	+25%
#87	78.7	+30%
#96	79.8	+32%
#250	88.8	+47%
#448	96.6	+60%
#1,703	123.7	+105%
#1,956	128.8	+113%
2,500+	167.0	+176%
2,500+	178.8	+196%
2,500+	183.7	+204%
2,500+	245.9	+307%

Best two-word openings

Play these two words every game, whatever colours the first one shows. Ten different letters, very few answers left.

First	Second	Answers left
		4.37
		4.78
		4.81
		5.11
		5.12
		5.50

Most informative openers

Ranked by information gained (bits) instead of answers left. It’s a slightly different yardstick, and the top few barely change.

1.5.89 bits

2.5.88 bits

3.5.88 bits

4.5.87 bits

5.5.87 bits

6.5.86 bits

7.5.83 bits

8.5.83 bits

9.5.83 bits

10.5.83 bits

How we ranked the starting words

A good first guess is one that leaves you with as few possibilities as possible, whatever the answer turns out to be. To measure that, we took every word in the classic answer list (2,315 words) as a potential answer and, for each candidate opener, computed the exact colours Wordle would show. Answers that produce the same colours stay indistinguishable, so they form a group.

Average answers left is the size of the group you land in, averaged over all answers. An opener that splits the list into many small groups scores low (good).
Worst case is the largest group, usually the “all grey” result.
Patterns counts how many different colour results the word can produce. More patterns means finer splits.
Any green is the share of answers for which at least one tile turns green; greens / yellows are the average number of each per game.
Bits measure information in the information-theory sense; one bit halves the possibilities.

We scored the 2,500 accepted guesses with the strongest letter coverage (a quick pre-filter; the leaders sit far inside that group), and every number above is computed exactly against the full answer list rather than estimated from a sample. Repeated letters are coloured exactly as Wordle colours them.

What makes a great opener

Common consonants beat extra vowels. R, T, L, S and N appear in a large share of answers and in predictable positions. That is why the top words mix two or three vowels with them.
No repeated letters. A second copy of a letter wastes a slot that could test something new.
Position matters, too. E is most common at the end, S at the start, A and O in the second slot. Openers that put letters where they usually sit earn more greens.
Plan the second word. If you want a routine, choose a pair with ten different letters from the table above. If you prefer to adapt, let the solver pick a follow-up based on your actual colours.

Which opener should you pick?

If you only care about the numbers, start with ROATE. If you like the chance of a hole-in-one, choose RAISE, the best opener that is also on the answer list. It gives up very little. The same openers work in Quordle and Octordle, and the Quordle solver and Octordle solver rank follow-ups across every board at once.

To explore by letter instead, browse five-letter words by first letter, by last letter or containing a letter, or see every five-letter word.

Starting word FAQ

What is the single best Wordle starting word?

By our measure (the fewest possible answers left on average), it is ROATE, which leaves about 60.4 of the 2,315 classic answers. It is an accepted guess but not a likely answer itself. If you prefer an opener that can also win in one, RAISE is nearly as strong.

Is ADIEU a good starting word?

It is popular because it tests four vowels, but vowels alone don’t split the answer list well. ADIEU leaves about 123.7 answers on average, roughly double what the best openers leave. Common consonants like R, T, L, S and N carry more information.

Should I use the same starting word every day?

A fixed opener is a sound strategy: you learn its typical results, and pairing it with a fixed second word (see the two-word table) covers ten letters quickly. Variety only matters if you enjoy it, since the best few openers are within a few percent of each other.

Does the best opener change in hard mode?

The first guess is unaffected because hard mode only restricts later guesses. What changes is your second word: it must reuse any yellow or green letters, so high-coverage follow-ups like those in the two-word table are often not allowed.

Why do some top words look strange (ROATE, SOARE, RAILE)?

Wordle accepts about 13,000 guesses, including many obscure words. Some of them happen to combine the most useful letters in the most useful positions. They are legal guesses even though they will never be the answer.

How were these numbers calculated?

We took the 2,500 accepted guesses with the best letter coverage and played each one against every one of the 2,315 classic answers, recording the exact colour pattern Wordle would show, repeated letters included. The method section above explains each statistic.

Best Wordle Starting Words, Ranked With Data