Unscramble Wizard
CRANE
A 3Blue1Brown analysis of optimal openers found CRANE pairs unusually well with frequent second-guess words. Covers C, R, N — three of the most common consonants — plus A and E.
Best Wordle Starting Words
Eight openers ranked by letter frequency, vowel coverage, and the math of information gain. Pick one and stick with it — consistency beats flair when you're chasing a Wordle streak.
| Word | Vowels | Unique letters | Scrabble pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| CRANE | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| SLATE | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| RAISE | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| AROSE | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| AUDIO | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| ADIEU | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| STARE | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| ROATE | 3 | 5 | 5 |
Why each opener works
SLATE
The MIT entropy-maximisation study put SLATE at or near the top across multiple solver strategies. S, L, T cover the most common end-of-word consonants in English.
RAISE
Vowel-heavy and well-balanced. R, S are extremely common; A, I, E together test three of the four most frequent vowels in one guess.
AROSE
Like RAISE but trades I for O. Excellent vowel coverage — useful when you want to lock down vowels first and worry about consonants on guess two.
AUDIO
Four different vowels in one word. A pure information-gathering opener — only Y is left. Pairs well with consonant-heavy follow-ups like NYMPH or CLINT.
ADIEU
Same idea as AUDIO — four vowels — but with U instead of O. Slightly less common letter spread, but a strong "vowels-first" choice.
STARE
Anagram of RATES. Combines the most common consonants (S, T, R) with two of the most common vowels (A, E). A close cousin of SLATE.
ROATE
Mathematically optimal under hard mode in some published Wordle solvers. Note: ROATE is a valid guess but not a possible answer — use it for information only.
What makes a starting word good?
Three things, in roughly this order:
- Common letters. The ten most frequent letters in 5-letter English words are roughly E, A, R, I, O, T, N, S, L, C. A good opener uses several of them.
- All-different letters. Repeating a letter (e.g. SASSY, MIMIC) wastes one of your five tile slots — you learn less per guess.
- Vowel coverage. Every Wordle answer has at least one vowel and most have two. Hitting two or three vowels on guess one usually narrows the answer fast.
Hard mode vs. normal mode
In normal mode, your best second guess can completely ignore green/yellow constraints — so pure-information openers like AUDIO or ADIEU pair beautifully with consonant-rich follow-ups like NYMPH or CLINT.
In hard mode, you're locked into using every revealed letter. That makes openers with very common letters (CRANE, SLATE, STARE) more reliable than vowel-stuffing picks.
Two-guess openings
Some solvers play a fixed two-word opener that together cover ten different common letters. Popular pairings:
- SLATE → CHIRP — covers S, L, A, T, E, C, H, I, R, P (10 letters).
- CRANE → MOIST — adds M, O, I, S, T to the C, R, A, N, E baseline.
- AUDIO → NYMPH — pure vowels then pure consonants; very low overlap.
What about ROATE?
ROATE was crowned "mathematically optimal" by a 2022 MIT paper that analysed Wordle as a decision-tree problem. The catch: ROATE is a valid Wordle guess but was never a possible answer. Use it for information only — you'll never get five greens.
Try it out
Once you've played your opener and have some green/yellow/gray feedback, plug it into our Wordle Solver to see every remaining candidate ranked by letter-frequency score. Want to see how past Wordle answers used these letters? Browse the complete Wordle answer archive.
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