Wordle: Success!

The internet is swimming with advice these days about how to triumph at Wordle, a spelling game that has grown exponentially since introduced last November. I came late to the Wordle game: only began playing in January.

Wordle is simple. Every day a new Wordle puzzle is posted. You have six attempts to guess a five-letter word. First guess: type in any word at all. If your guess includes a letter that is contained in the word of the day, it shows up in yellow. If you guess a correct letter that is also in the correct position within the word — bingo! — it displays as green.

Most of us start with a word that contains five common letters. Since day one I have used ‘STARE.’

Some pundits argue the best starting word is ‘RAISE’ as it includes the most common letters, but I disagree. There are only five vowels, while there are twenty consonants (and one ambiguous ‘y’). With so many more potential consonants, the value of determining the status of three vowels on your first guess isn’t all that important. Better to start determining consonants.

I began, like most people, working off of whatever yellow and green letters the word ‘STARE’ delivered. I was able to determine the…