Wordle: The Best Starter Words, Strategies, Tips and Tricks To Help You Win - CNET

I shared my easy winning strategy for playing Wordle, the hit online game invented by Josh Wardle that's running daily on The New York Times' site. Essentially, I begin with TRAIN and CLOSE, then look at any correct letters and try a word that uses them in numerous spots. When I need to picture possible winning words, I utilize Xs to spell out the correct letters I know so far. So far, the strategy is still working. 

And now there's a new tool you can use. I call it my Wordle player cheat sheet. With help from the big brains at the Oxford English Dictionary, I've put together a list ranking all the letters in the alphabet, listed in the order they're most used in English words. So as you might have guessed, E and A are great letters to throw into a Wordle guess. J and Q, not so much.

I also asked readers and friends to share their Wordle strategies. Hope you'll find some tips to freshen up your game play here.

Be a CHAMP

"I used to use TRAIN as my first guess; now my first two words are always NOISE and TRULY. If the word isn't apparent, I next use CHAMP. Those three words give me 15 letters that are most common, including all 6 vowels. If I'm still totally lost, I go with DEBUG, giving me three more consonants."  --Dan Hughes

Use yesterday's winner

"I always start with the previous day's winning word. Continuity!"  --Marc Hirsh

The random method

"For a long time I used two starter words that gave a lot of vowels and common letters, which always made me a solid four-line winner and sometimes three. But then I branched out and just tossed in random words. Still made me a solid four line winner, sometimes three and a couple of twos."  --Susan C. Young

Another vote for random

"I have almost no strategy. My wordle (and quordle) play is a random free for all. I get wordle in 4 guesses almost every time. I use whatever starter word pops into my head. I will use a second, random word to try to get more hits."  --Debe Ashe Hoover

Importance of A and R

"I also always type out what I have correct with 'X' in the unknown spot(s). Often times a visual person like me can then see the correct answer right away. Also, if I have an 'a' and an 'r' in the wrong place, I almost always move them to the 3rd and 4th spots, so it (could spell) 'are' or 'ard,' etc. That's where they belong a large percentage of the time, if I don't already have it correct."  --Christine Eberhard Minor

Get those vowels

"My strategy is starting with AUDIO to target four vowels."  --Vanessa Bloy

Did we mention vowels?

"ALOUD or OCEAN are my usual."  --Juli Jansen Pelletier

'Stare' at the puzzle

"I stopped playing — but my starter word was always STARE."  --Scott Lerman

Use a 'straw'

"(My starter word) is STRAW…". --Stefan Myslicki