Wordle has been nothing short of a wonderful little gift from the heavens. A tiny word-guessing game that has taken over the internet in the blink of an eye. Which, honestly if you think about it is a delightful turn of events from the dreary seriousness we walked into 2022 with. There are no ads, it’s free to play and you get only one word per day. There’s a novelty in solving the daily Wordle that’s slowly becoming an essential part of everyone’s life.
It’s easy to get hooked on Wordle and hard to leave its miniature joys. You see the randomly aligned colored boxes staring at you from your phone, begging you to come and join the fun and you can’t help but submit to it. We understand you.
To play Wordle efficiently you need to know the ins and outs of it. Don’t worry, we’re here to guide you through Wordle’s rules so you can focus on guessing the daily word rather than letting simple rules bother your experience.
Related: How to Play Wordle [Beginner’s guide]
Wordle rules: All you need to know
Newcomer to the Wordle phenomena? Wordle will always stick a pop-up containing instructions every time a newcomer stumbles on their website: https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/. You can read these instructions again by visiting Wordle’s official website in private/incognito mode if you wish.
In the meantime, let’s get you up and running with Wordle’s Rules.
Wordle is not a time-sensitive game. While you get 24 hours to guess that day’s word, there is no other active countdown as you try to brainstorm your way into the most efficient guessing path. You can take your time. The goal is to spend anxiety-free 10-15 minutes every day and have fun along the way.
After each successful guess, Wordle will present you with your stats and a countdown for the next day’s word.
Everyone around the world gets the same word. This makes sharing your results on social media all the more fun as you can compare the unique guessing paths you and your friends took to arrive at the same destination.
Related: 8 Best ‘Wordle Helper’ Websites and Tips
You get 6 tries to guess the word of the day. In case you’re wondering if 6 tries are enough we’re here to assure you that, for a 5 letter word they’re more than enough.
All 6 guesses must be valid words according to Wordle’s dictionary, which is basically the set of all 5 letter words plucked from the English dictionary. If you enter an invalid word, Wordle won’t accept your input and you’ll have to enter again. If you have any doubts you can simply enter the word and Wordle will inform you whether your input was a valid one or not.
Every guess returns valuable information. Look at the picture below. A green square on S in our first guess implies that not only does S belongs in the answer but that it also occurs at the same place (1st place in our case). Same for G.
Yellow squares on R in our 1st guess and on A and U in our 2nd guess imply that those respective letters belong in the answer but not at those specific locations. For example, R belongs in the word but not at the 4th place, A and U also belong in the word but not at the 1st and last position respectively.
The ideal approach to solving Wordle is to use every bit of information you have before making your next guess. For example, in the above picture, we’ve already deduced 5 distinct letters that belong in the word (S, U, R, G, and A). Therefore your next intelligent guess should be the word itself.
Related: How to Download Wordle. Which Wordle is The Right One?
Wordle hard mode rules
In a surprising turn of events, Wordle has evolved into one of those online things that have the capability of bringing people together. People, you and us included, are inherently competitive and we can’t get enough of sharing and comparing our results on social media. But are you aware that Wordle offers an even harder playing mode for competitive players?
It’s entirely possible that you might already be using the Hard Mode rules subconsciously. For those who’re not aware of it, jump right in.
Hard Mode imposes further restrictions on the guesses you’re allowed to make. Gone are the days when you could ignore the alignment of green and yellow tiles from your previous guesses. In Hard Mode, you can no longer make random guesses and hope to arrive at the word by hit and trial. You have to use the hints received in your previous guesses while making future guesses.
For example, let’s say our first guess was STORY. It turns out S is the first letter of the answer and it also contains R. We can also deduce that R is not the 1st or the 4th letter. Therefore, if Hard Mode is toggled on, your next guess has to start with S and R needs to occur somewhere in it.
Let’s say our next guess is SABER. Wow! That revealed quite a lot of information. Our next guess needs to start with S and end with R. Not only that but A needs to be a part of it. It’s perfectly fine if your next guess has A as the 2nd letter again, even in Hard Mode.
Let’s say our next guess is SAGER.
You can now easily deduce that the only place left for A is 4th place. If you look close enough you’ll also find that Hard Mode has in fact helped you a ton in guessing the word.
Hard Mode is nothing special. In fact, its primary purpose is to streamline your guessing choices and help you get the best result you can. With time and experience, you will naturally adopt the Hard Mode rules as your normal Wordle routine.
Related: Wordle: 5-Letter Words With the Most Vowels
FAQs
Can I use the same guess twice in Wordle?
Yes, you can. Even the Hard Mode allows you to use the same guess twice. However, this serves no purpose and you will likely lose a try for nothing.
Can I toggle on the Hard Mode if I’ve already made a guess?
No, Wordle does not allow you to turn on the Hard Mode in the middle of a guessing session. Hard Mode’s purpose is to force players to use all the information acquired from their previous tries to improve their future guesses. The ability to toggle Hard Mode on or off in the middle of a session would defeat its purpose.
Is there a way I can track how well I did on Wordle?
Yes. Wordle has a lovely community of players and developers working together to improve the daily word-guessing experience. There’s a wonderful website called Scoredle which can track your Wordle performance. Simply enter your guesses on Scoredle’s website in the same order you did while solving the puzzle initially. This should give you a detailed analysis of your performance. You can see the possible guesses at every step and a detailed list of possible words before your last and correct guess. Look at the picture below, it seems we did pretty well.
Can I play older Wordle puzzles?
Yes, you can. Although not official, there’s a website made by Wordle fans that allows you to pick a date and play that specific date’s Worlde. Amazing right? This should help new players get a hang of the word-guessing phenomena. Refer to our detailed guide to know more about playing past Wordle games.
Related: How to Play Old Wordles
If you face any issues or have any more questions, feel free to drop them in the comments section below.
Related:
- Average Wordle Score and Stats: What Are They and How to Find Some
- How to Play Wordle in Excel
- How to Play Wordle Multiplayer With Friends
- What is the Average Number of Guesses in Wordle?
- How to Play Wordle Multiplayer With Friends
- What Does Wordle Score Mean?
- Is Wordle an app on iPhone or Android? Everything You Need To Know
- Wordle Same Letter Twice Rules Explained: How Does it Work?
- Does Everyone Get the Same Wordle?
I didn’t find the answer I was looking for here. The game itself says that they do not repeat a letter in a word. In other words a letter is only used one time and a word. However in Googling this, I’m getting the opposite information. Trying to find someone who can provide the facts? Thanks!
Wordle does repeat letters. Please learn more about it here: https://nerdschalk.com/wordle-same-letter-twice-rules-explained-how-does-it-work/amp/
Yes, the same letter can appear multiple times in a word. For example, the answer for 6/3/22 is “rupee.”
Never ran into this issue until today, but I had assumed that lettera could not be repeated, e.g., we wouldn’t have the word MATTE where the T was used twice, or TENET where two letters were used twice. Also, if the word is MATTE, and the guess was TRUST, obviously the T would be in yellow, but what if the guess was MATES? The T is in the right spot for maTte but also in the wrong spot for matTe, so would the T be in green or yellow?
So yes, please add this to the FAQ: letters can appear on more than one ocassion, e.g. MATTE.
I wonder if it has happened before or if this was the result of the NYT purchase.
I, too, am confused by repeat letters!! In no other jotto-type game is that allowed. I am not happy.
I haven’t unconsciously been using hard mode. I’ve consciously been using very hard mode. If I know that a letter belongs in a certain place, I use it there. If I know that a letter belongs somewhere but I don’t know where, I won’t use it where I already know it doesn’t go.
I don’t know why anyone would do it any other way, or if it’s even possible not to get the right answer this way. I did make mistakes and accidentally broke my own rules, and that meant getting up to five words before I got it. That happened to me twice. If there were a way to turn on a mode that rejects anything that was ruled out by prior guesses, I’d turn it on.
Maybe an even harder mode with a limit of four would be in order.
Are proper names used, such as James?
How about place names, such as Texas?
I’m unsure about this. I thought the answer is yes, since it accepted “Alamo” as a guess. Then I looked the word up and discovered that it’s not only a place name, but also a type of tree when written in lower case. In other words, I still don’t know if proper nouns can be used
Try entering “James” as a guess and see if Wordle accepts it. If it’s not in it’s dictionary, the guess will be rejected. Let us know!
Does Wordle only use nouns?
No, yesterday’s answer was a verb, “ALLOW.”
Should you use pen and paper or is this frowned on?
Pen and paper is only frowned upon by stuck up bitches
Why was “sauté” an acceptable answer on 3/18/22? I got it correct but it took me 5 guesses because I didn’t know that foreign letters are allowed. To clarify, I consulted several dictionaries and all showed an accent aigu over the “e.” In other words, “saute” (with no accent) is not a real word in English. Are other foreign words or words with accents allowed, e.g. “blasé”?
Are plurals allowed as the correct answer? My first guess is usually “STARE” (it got me a 2-guess victory last week). If plurals are allowed, I would use “TEARS”, “RATES” or “TARES” instead.
Although I’ve never seen a plural answer, in guessing that they’re allowed since you can use plurals as your guesses.
Hi just did Wordle today & my word was a personal name HARRY, but others word of the day was STOVE (30 March 2022).everywhere I read globally we should have the same word. Also, are human names allowed ? Thank & regards Mark Australia
Mark: Are human names allowed?
That’s debatable. Most human names that aren’t also English words got rejected. However, I found a few names that were accepted even though I could not find any non-capitalized definition for them. For example, “James” is an acceptable guess but as far as I know, it has no English definition other than as a proper name. Even when referring to biblical text, it is capitalized. In contrast, “Italy” is not an acceptable guess
HARRY is an English verb, as in harried and harrass.
Back to the issue of plurals: that opens us up to looking for 4 letter words, seems ungentlemanly. Are they allowed? If so, are they used much? You’d have to put an S at the end for all starting words then.
Can you check on the spelling of a word or if it is a valid word by goggling or asking Alexa prior to entering word?
Can you check on the spelling of a word or if it is a valid word by goggling or asking Alexa prior to entering word?
Joanne,
If it is not an acceptable word, Wordle will tell you so. You will not be penalized a guess for putting in an unacceptable or misspelled word. After the New York Times bought Wordle, many words removed from the the word list even though they are real English words. The removals included words that are obscene, profane, offensive, sexist, racist, controversial, outdated or obscure. Words describing sexual anatomy, even slang, are still allowed.
Thank you for your reply .. I already knew that but sometimes I don’t want to commit to the word and use up a line when I still have a few choices in my head…. once you enter to see if it’s a word you are stuck choosing it… so back to my original question… trying to settle a family dispute … lol
Joanne,
The easiest way to check a word without affecting your game or record is to open up Wordle on another browser. Your current record and history are saved as a cookie in your browser. If you use another browser, it’ll treat you as another person, with a different record and history. For example, if you and your partner want to play Wordle on the same tablet, then you’ll have to use different browsers, e.g. one uses Chrome while the other uses Edge.
An alternative is to open up a Private tab. These tabs keep no history of your previous sessions, so Wordle will always treat you as a new player. You can then test out words to your heart’s content, without affecting your current game or history. Just play your normal Wordle in a regular tab and open a Private tab with Wordle next to it for testing out words.
Great idea!!! Thanks!!! 😊
What are gold coins awarded used for
I’ve never gotten nor seen any gold coins in connection to Wordle.