If you like trivia or word-guessing games, then you must have come across Wordle. This new word-guessing game has been taking the world by storm thanks to its random word-generation algorithm alongside a simple 5-letter guessing approach.
If you’ve tried your hand at Wordle but were left a bit perplexed by its coloring system, then this page is for you. We will talk about what the yellow, green, and gray colors mean on Wordle and how to work your way around them successfully.
Related: How to use Wordle on iPhone and Android as an App
What is Wordle and how to play it?
As mentioned above, Wordle is a random word guessing game in which all players get a new secret word each day, which they have to figure out in a total of 6 moves. To play Wordle, you have to submit 5-letter words in a way that helps you find the letters in the secret word.
The letters you use in your guess words get colored feedback with respect to their position and occurrence in the secret word. This makes it progressively easier for you to guess the word of the day with each guess you exhaust in the process.
The word you input as a guess might contain a valid letter, but maybe stationed in the wrong position, or the letter may not be present in the secret word at all — these are the hurdles you have to cross to arrive at the finishing line.
To turntables, you must employ your deduction skills to identify the letter for its correct occurrence and position at once — that is the gist of the guessing process. The optimal way is to bring out as many unique letters as possible at the earliest phase in the game.
The color-feedback gained by the letters in your guess word divulges how good the guess is, and how close you are to solving the puzzle. So, let’s talk in detail about what the colors on Wordle mean.
Related: How to Share Wordle Score
What do colors mean on Wordle?
Wordle uses 3 colors to shed light on the relevance of the letters in a guess word. Here’s what each color means.
Green color:
A green-colored letter means that the letter in the guess word is present in the secret word. It also reveals that the letter is not only present but also occupies the same position in the secret word.
A letter in a green tile is all-correct.
Yellow color:
If a letter is enclosed in a yellow tile, it indicates that the letter in the guess word is present in the secret word, but in a different position/column. To solve this error, you can change its place in the follow-up guesses to locate the correct position. Depending on the feedback received by other letters in your guess words, you may have to make more or fewer position swapping of the yellow letter(s) to discover their right location.
A letter in yellow tile is partially correct.
Grey color:
If a letter in a guess word receives a gray highlight as feedback, it means that it is not a part of the secret word. It is an explicit rejection from the system, cueing you to reorient your follow-up guesses to other letters (that are either awaiting feedback or have already received positive feedback).
A letter in gray tile is completely wrong.
The feedback, shown in the form of filled-in colored columns (with green, gray, or yellow), also reflects on the virtual keyboard. It is an assistive attribute presented to the players to assimilate the system-given feedback to optimize follow-up moves.
Related: Does Wordle repeat letters?
The Wordle colors transcend the gameplay to indicate a player’s performance on the score grid.
The mystified, graphical representation of the game on the share-component gives a third-party viewer a quick grasp on how a player concluded a game, how well they played, the accuracy of their guesses, etc. The relevance of the colors remains the same on the score as it does in the play.
Are there any other hints, tools, or aids in Wordle?
Unfortunately, there are no hints, tools, or aids to help you guess the word of the day in Wordle — other than colors assigned to the letters based on their position and use in the word.
All you get to arrive at the secret word are:
- 6 attempts to guess the word
- Yellow, Green, and Gray colors as feedback for each letter in each guess word
- A character restriction of 5-letters on both the secret word and guess words.
For those players who wish to raise the stakes of the challenge, Wordle allows for an option to toggle on the Hard mode. If you play the game on hard mode, any and all the letters that received positive feedback in a previous guess are compulsory components of the subsequent guesses.
Such an imposition leaves you no leeway when it comes to making liberal guesses to determine the right letters. In effect, you get trapped with no way to escape — you either make accurate follow-up moves to arrive at the secret word or might find yourself stuck, unable to come up with a word that satisfies the condition of the mandated use of green, yellow letters.
Apart from this, we recommend you simply stick to guessing. After a day or two, you should be able to easily get the hang of the game, which should make it much easier for you to guess the words in the upcoming challenges.
We hope this post helped you easily learn about color-coded letters in Wordle and what they mean. If you face any issues or have any more questions, feel free to reach out via the comments section below.
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