Unscramble WizardCRANE
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.
Wordle Starting Words
Eight openers compared by letter frequency and vowel coverage. There is no single “mathematically optimal” first guess for every player — pick a solid opener and stay consistent.
Allowed guesses and answer lists can change. These notes are strategy heuristics, not official Wordle guidance.
| 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
A high-coverage letter combination sometimes used in solver analyses. Accepted guesses can change, so check the current game before relying on it.
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. In most opening strategies, five distinct letters reveal more information.
- Vowel coverage. Many five-letter English words contain one or two of A, E, I, O, and U. Testing several vowels can narrow the candidate set quickly.
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 uncommon solver openers?
Solver rankings depend on the answer set, allowed-guess set, hard-mode rules, and the metric being optimized. An uncommon word can test useful letters without being a likely answer. Because accepted guesses can change, verify an unfamiliar opener in the current game.
Try it out
Once you've played your opener and have some green/yellow/gray feedback, plug it into ourWordle Solver to see matching ENABLE candidates ranked by letter-frequency score. The site's stored Wordle datasetis currently under audit and excluded from search indexing.
Stuck on today's puzzle?
Use our Wordle Solver— enter your green, yellow, and gray letters to filter the site's ENABLE candidates.