In Wordle, a green tile means the letter is in the word and in that position. A yellow tile means the letter is in the word but belongs somewhere else. A gray tile generally means that letter is not part of the answer, although repeated letters can make gray feedback more subtle. The key is to use every result to reduce the possibilities for your next guess.
Green
The letter belongs in the answer and is already in the correct position.
Yellow
The letter is part of the answer, but this is not its correct position.
Gray
The letter usually does not belong in the answer, subject to the way repeated letters are evaluated.
Wordle Is a Process of Elimination
Every Wordle guess does more than test whether you have found the answer. It gives you information about which letters may be present and where those letters can appear.
The strongest next guess is usually one that respects what you have already learned while helping resolve the parts of the word that remain uncertain.
This is why understanding green and yellow tiles is more useful than simply trying another random five-letter word.
Lock In Your Green Letters
A green tile confirms both the letter and its position. That is one of the strongest clues the puzzle can give you.
When planning your next guess, think of that position as established and focus your attention on solving the remaining spaces.
In this example, the third position is confirmed. Future possibilities should therefore respect that information while finding a new position for the yellow letter.
Move Yellow Letters to New Positions
A yellow letter tells you two things at once: the letter belongs somewhere in the answer, and the position you just tested is not the correct one.
Your next guess should therefore look for a useful way to move that letter elsewhere.
Useful habit: Don't keep placing a yellow letter back into a position that has already been shown to be wrong.
Use Gray Letters to Remove Possibilities
Gray feedback can be extremely useful because it helps eliminate letters from consideration.
If a letter has been ruled out, repeatedly testing it in new guesses usually gives you less new information than trying an untested letter.
If your first guess rules out several letters, your next guess can concentrate on the remaining possibilities instead of starting over from the full alphabet.
Be Careful With Repeated Letters
Repeated letters make Wordle feedback slightly more complicated.
An answer can contain the same letter more than once. At the same time, guessing a letter twice does not automatically mean both copies belong in the answer.
This means a gray copy of a letter should be interpreted together with any green or yellow copy of that same letter in the same guess.
Important: Don't treat duplicate-letter feedback as if every copy were a completely separate clue. Consider how many times the answer may actually contain that letter.
Combine All Your Clues Before Guessing Again
The mistake is not usually misunderstanding one tile. It is forgetting to combine every clue at the same time.
Before entering your next word, check whether it satisfies everything you already know.
- Are your known green letters in their confirmed positions?
- Have yellow letters been moved away from positions already ruled out?
- Are you avoiding letters that have been eliminated?
- Does the guess test useful new information in uncertain positions?
Don't Waste a Guess Repeating Known Information
Once a clue is confirmed, you usually gain more from investigating the remaining uncertainty than from testing exactly the same information again.
check_circle Already Known
Green positions and previously tested yellow positions give you information you can carry forward.
search Still Unknown
Use open positions and untested letters to narrow the remaining possibilities.
Turn Your Wordle Clues Into Possible Words
Enter your known, included and excluded letters into the UnscrambleCraft Wordle Solver to narrow the list of five-letter words that match your current puzzle.
Try Wordle Solver arrow_forwardUse New Letters When You Still Need Information
If several positions remain unknown, a guess containing useful untested letters may help reduce the number of possible answers.
This is especially useful when you have only a small amount of positive information from an early guess.
However, the goal is not to test new letters blindly. Your guess should still make sense in light of the green, yellow and gray clues already available.
Think About Word Patterns, Not Just Individual Letters
As more positions become known, the shape of the answer becomes increasingly important.
A green letter in the middle of the word, for example, may suggest certain beginnings or endings. Yellow letters can further restrict which arrangements remain realistic.
Looking at complete five-letter patterns is often more effective than considering each letter independently.
You can explore additional patterns on our 5-Letter Words page.
Let Your First Guess Guide the Second
Your second guess should normally be a response to your first result rather than a completely separate idea.
If you received several useful clues immediately, work with them. If your first guess produced very little information, your second guess can focus more heavily on testing new letters.
For more on choosing an opening word, read Best Wordle Starting Words: What Makes a Good Starter?
Recheck Every Clue When You Get Stuck
When a puzzle starts feeling difficult, return to the information you already have instead of guessing more quickly.
Confirm each green position, list the positions that are impossible for each yellow letter, and review which letters have been ruled out.
Often, the puzzle becomes easier once all of those restrictions are viewed together.
Wordle's colors are not simply a score for your previous guess. They are instructions for narrowing your next one. The better you use each clue, the smaller the search space becomes.
Keep Greens Fixed
Treat green tiles as confirmed positions when evaluating your next possible word.
Move Yellows
Keep the letter in consideration, but try it in another possible position.
Remove Grays
Use eliminated letters to reduce the number of reasonable possibilities remaining.
Combine Every Clue
Evaluate the complete pattern instead of treating each colored tile as an isolated piece of information.
A green tile means the letter is present in the answer and is already in the correct position.
A yellow tile means the letter appears in the answer but is not in the position where you just guessed it.
A gray tile generally indicates that the letter is not part of the answer. Repeated-letter guesses require extra care because another copy of the same letter may already have received green or yellow feedback.
Yes. A Wordle answer can contain the same letter more than once, which is why duplicate-letter feedback should be interpreted carefully.
Combine all available clues. Keep green positions, move yellow letters to possible new positions, avoid letters that have been eliminated when appropriate, and use uncertain positions to test useful possibilities.