Wordle Strategy & Practice

Real progress at Wordle comes from training your thinking.

Ian's Wordle Trainer is a brain training tool. It allows you to test different logic and find more clues against a challenge word so that you can absorb better strategies and learn more words — and get genuinely smarter over time.

Use it after your daily Wordle to understand what the best path was. Use it on its own to practise new strategies. Use it with a friend to challenge each other and learn together.

🧠 Train SmarterSee exactly which words eliminate the most possibilities — then understand why, so you can apply that thinking yourself.
🎲 Practice PuzzlesReplay today's Wordle with a different strategy. Challenge a friend. Try a random word. Build the habits that great players use.
📖 Explore WordsTap any result to hear it spoken and read its definition — expand your vocabulary and your edge.
Shared Challenges1-Min, 10-Min, and Day words — the same hidden word for everyone in your timezone for that time period. Compete fairly with no one knowing the answer.

Explore Strategy and Help in the menu to go deeper.

Ian's Wordle Trainer

🎲 Practice Puzzle
1Tap Random for a hidden word
or: Tap 1-Min, 10-Min or Day Word for a shared challenge — everyone in your timezone gets the same hidden word, so you can all compete fairly
or: Hand your phone to a friend to secretly type it into a word then tap Set ✓
2Type your guess then press + ADD GUESS

Ian's Wordle Trainer

🔍 Help to Solve a Remote Game by Entering the Colours Yourself or the Current Game in Play
1Type your Wordle guess into the tiles
2Tap each tile to set its colour
gray yellow green
3Tap Add Guess, repeat for each guess, then tap Solve
Current Game Analysis
Letter frequency of the current game’s possible common words
Best exclusion probe words
Optimised exclusion words
Best common candidate words
Opening Words

Scores combine positional frequency (how often a letter appears in each specific position across all common answers) with overall frequency (how often a letter appears anywhere). No repeated letters. Higher = statistically stronger opener.

Top 20 Opening Words
# WORD POS% TOTAL 1SLATE63.7101.3 2CRANE62.899.3 3SHARE62.699.2 4STARE59.599.0 5SNARE59.998.3 6CRATE60.397.9 7SAUTE61.296.8 8SHALE62.196.7 9STALE59.096.6 10AROSE56.396.1 11TRACE58.496.0 12ARISE56.995.9 13SPARE58.795.1 14RAISE56.095.0 15SAUCE61.695.0 16SCARE57.795.0 17SHORE59.594.1 18SLICE61.694.1 19STORE56.393.8 20SNORE56.793.1
Overall Letter Frequency (all positions)
E10.9% A8.5% R7.8% O6.6% T6.3% S6.0% L5.9% I5.7% N5.2% C4.1% U3.9% Y3.4% D3.4% H3.4% P3.2% M2.7% G2.6% B2.3% F2.0% K1.9% W1.7% V1.4% Z0.4% X0.3% Q0.3% J0.2%
Positional Frequency (% of answers with that letter in that position)
Pos Top letters (% of answers)
1stS 20%  C 11%  B 9%  T 8%  A 8%  P 8%  F 7%  M 6%  G 6%  R 5%
2ndA 17%  O 16%  R 16%  E 14%  L 11%  I 11%  U 10%  H 9%  N 5%  T 5%
3rdA 14%  I 11%  O 11%  E 8%  R 7%  U 7%  N 6%  T 5%  L 4%  S 4%
4thE 16%  N 10%  S 9%  R 8%  I 8%  A 8%  L 8%  C 8%  T 7%  O 7%
5thE 24%  Y 19%  T 13%  R 11%  L 8%  N 7%  D 7%  H 7%  K 6%  A 3%

SLATE is the #1 opener: S is the most common 1st letter (20%), L scores well in position 2, A and T are strong in positions 3 and 4, and E dominates position 5 (24%). Together they cover five of the highest-frequency letters with no repeats.

Second Guess Strategy

After your opener, use what you know:

  • Green tiles — those letters are locked. Your next word must have them in the same position.
  • Yellow tiles — those letters are in the word but not where you guessed. Move them to a different position.
  • Gray tiles — eliminate those letters entirely from your next guess .
  • If many candidates remain — consider an exclusion probe word that tests 5 untested letters rather than guessing an answer directly. The solver's purple suggestions do this for you.
Probe Words vs Answer Words

When 6+ candidates remain after two guesses, guessing a plausible answer is often a mistake. A single wrong answer guess eliminates only one candidate. A well-chosen probe word can eliminate half the remaining field in one move — even if it isn't the answer.

Example: if STAIN and PROUD both miss, you know the answer contains none of {S,T,A,I,N,P,R,O,U,D}. Rather than guessing blindly, tap Solve to see one of the suggested exclusion words — these are chosen specifically to test the most useful untested letters.

Tap Solve → in the app to see the top-ranked probe words for your exact situation. They appear in purple, above the green answer candidates.

Duplicate Letters

Wordle answers sometimes contain the same letter twice — ABBEY, BLOOD, VIVID. Most players don't guess duplicates until forced. Here's when to consider it:

  • When a letter appears yellow twice, the answer has at least two of it
  • When only 2–3 candidates remain and they all contain a doubled letter
  • When you've eliminated enough letters that common double-letter patterns (LL, OO, EE) become likely

The solver handles duplicate letter constraints automatically — including the tricky case where a letter appears once as yellow and once as gray, confirming it appears exactly once.

Practise a Specific Strategy

Use the Practice Puzzle mode to test your opening words deliberately:

  1. Tap Random for a hidden word, or enter a known word
  2. Always open with the same starter (e.g. STAIN) and track how many guesses it takes over 10 rounds
  3. Swap to a different opener the next 10 rounds and compare
  4. Use Solve → when stuck to see what the algorithm would have done differently

Consistent openers build muscle memory. Vary your second guess based on the result, not habit.

How Possible Solutions Are Ranked

When you tap Solve, every word in the common and less common lists is tested against your constraints. The ones that pass are shown — but the order matters.

Common words are sorted by a five-position letter frequency score. The app ranks each letter in each position by how often it appears there across all common Wordle answers. The word that scores best across all five positions appears first and is marked ★.

The sort evaluates positions in a fixed priority order — last letter first, then first, third, fourth, second — reflecting where letter variation most sharply narrows the field. Within each position, letters are ranked from most to least common at that spot. A word with the highest-frequency letter in the highest-priority position ranks above one that merely has common letters scattered across lower-priority spots.

Less common words are sorted alphabetically — they are less likely answers so precise ranking matters less.

Obscure words are also sorted alphabetically and shown last. They match your constraints but are very unlikely to be the intended answer.

The ★ top-ranked common word is statistically the strongest next guess given what you know — but it is a suggestion, not a guarantee. If it doesn't feel right, scan the list and trust your instincts.

How Exclusion Words Are Chosen

Exclusion probe words appear in purple, above the answer candidates. They are not likely answers — they are strategic tools to extract maximum information from a single guess when several candidates remain.

The app builds exclusion words in five steps:

  1. Collect tested letters — every letter used across all your guesses so far, regardless of colour, is marked as tested.
  2. Score untested letters by coverage — each untested letter is scored by how many of the current common answer candidates contain it. A letter that appears in 8 of 10 remaining candidates scores 8.
  3. Build the candidate pool — all words across common, less common and obscure lists are filtered to keep only those containing zero tested letters and zero repeated letters. This ensures the probe tests only fresh information.
  4. Score and rank probe candidates — each candidate is scored by summing the coverage values of its five unique letters. A word whose letters collectively appear in more remaining candidates scores higher.
  5. Return the top 15 — the highest-scoring probes are shown. The ★ top probe covers the most informative combination of untested letters given your current position.

Use an exclusion word when 5 or more answer candidates remain and you want to eliminate as many as possible in one guess — even at the cost of not guessing the answer directly.

Wordle is a word-guessing game. You have six attempts to find a secret five-letter word. After each guess, the tiles change colour to show how close your guess was.

C
GREEN

Right letter, right position. This letter is in the answer exactly here.

R
YELLOW

Right letter, wrong position. This letter is in the answer but somewhere else.

X
GREY

This letter does not appear in the answer at all.

  • Every guess must be a real, valid word
  • The same letter can appear more than once in the answer
  • You have six attempts to find the word
  • Start with a strong opening word — common letters in common positions

Ian's Wordle Trainer helps you understand why certain words and strategies work — so you improve with every session, not just solve today's puzzle.

  1. Type your guess into the five tiles — letters advance automatically
  2. Tap each tile to cycle its colour to match your Wordle result:
    gray not in the word   yellow wrong position   green correct
  3. + Add Guess — locks the guess in and updates the constraint list
  4. Repeat for each guess you've made so far
  5. Solve → — shows all remaining valid words in three ranked groups

You can remove a guess using the × button next to it, then re-solve with updated constraints.

  1. Tap 🎲 Random — a word is secretly chosen from the full common list
  2. Type your guess and tap + Add Guess — tile colours apply automatically
  3. Keep guessing. Tap Solve → any time for a hint without losing your progress
  4. Tap ↺ Reset to start a new puzzle
  1. Friend sets a word: hand your phone to a friend, they type a word into a word and tap Set ✓. The word hides immediately.
  2. You set a word: type any valid word into a word and tap Set ✓. Use this to replay today's Wordle with a different opening strategy.
  3. Guess as normal — tile colours apply automatically
  4. Only words from the common or less common word lists are accepted as challenge words

After the solver reveals an answer, you can type that word into the Set box to practise it again from scratch with a different approach.

Three buttons above the puzzle controls let you play a shared challenge word — the same word is generated for everyone in the same timezone during the same time period, so players can compete fairly without anyone knowing the answer in advance.

  • 1-Min Word — changes every minute. The fastest challenge — same word for everyone in the same minute. A countdown shows the seconds remaining.
  • 10-Min Word — changes every 10 minutes. Everyone playing between, say, 09:10 and 09:19 gets the same word. A countdown shows how long until the next word.
  • Day Word — changes at midnight. One word for the entire calendar day — compete with anyone, anywhere, on the same day.

Tapping a button silently sets that word as the challenge word — the word itself is never revealed. Guess as normal — there is no time pressure on your play. When a new period begins, new players receive a new challenge word, but your current puzzle continues unaffected until you choose to Reset. Tap ↺ Reset to return to free play.

The word is calculated using the date and time on your device — no internet connection is needed and no word is ever sent over the network. Everyone gets the same word purely from the clock.

🟣 Exclusion Words

Strategic probe guesses — not necessarily the answer. Use these when 5+ candidates remain and you need more information. They test the most informative untested letters.

🟢 Common Words

Primary answer candidates matching all your constraints, sorted by positional letter frequency. The ★ top pick is statistically the strongest next guess.

🟡 Less Common Words

Valid but less likely answers. Worth checking if common words are exhausted or don't feel right.

🟤 Obscure Words

Rarely used words that match your constraints are shown below less common words. These are valid Wordle guesses and genuine English words, but very unlikely to be the intended answer in a standard Wordle game. Shown for completeness — useful if the common and less common lists are exhausted.

When playing a practice puzzle, tile colours are applied automatically after each guess — you don't need to tap them. The colours reflect the hidden word:

  • green — correct letter, correct position
  • yellow — letter is in the word, wrong position
  • gray — letter is not in the word

Only words from the full word list (common, less common, and obscure) are accepted as guesses. Invalid words are rejected and the tiles are cleared.

Tap any word in the Solve results to look up its dictionary definition. This works for common, less common, obscure, and exclusion words.

The definition panel slides up and shows:

  • Phonetic pronunciation (e.g. /kreɪn/)
  • Part of speech — noun, verb, adjective and so on
  • Up to three definitions per part of speech
  • Example sentences in italics where available

Close the panel by tapping the button, tapping the dark area behind it, or pressing Escape on a keyboard.

Tap the 🔊 button in the definition panel to hear the word spoken aloud. Tap again to stop. Uses your device's built-in voice — no internet required.

Definitions are fetched live from the free dictionary API and then saved on your device. Once a word has been looked up it loads instantly from cache — even offline.

Real progress at Wordle comes from training your thinking.

Ian's Wordle Trainer is a brain training tool. It allows you to test different logic and find more clues against a challenge word so that you can absorb better strategies and learn more words — and get genuinely smarter over time.

Use it after your daily Wordle to understand what the best path was and where your thinking diverged. Use it on its own to practise new opening strategies deliberately. Use it with a friend to challenge each other and learn together.

The difference between a player who always finishes in six and one who regularly finishes in three is not luck — it is a trained habit of thinking. Ian's Wordle Trainer is how you build that habit.

Have you ever finished a Wordle and wondered — how did someone else get it in three guesses when it took you six? Behind every fast solver is a strategy: a feel for which letters appear most often, which positions they favour, and how to extract the most information from every single guess.

Ian's Wordle Trainer was built for anyone who wants to develop that — through active practice, not just solving assistance. You might be someone who:

  • Plays Wordle every day and wants to understand why certain opening words outperform others
  • Wants to practise with a specific word — perhaps today's Wordle answer — to test different opening strategies
  • Wants to learn unusual or obscure words that may appear in Wordle puzzles and could be used to test the current puzzle
  • Is a teacher or tutor who wants to set a challenge word for students
  • Has a friend who wants to secretly set a word for a private Wordle round
  • Is looking for a gentle way to keep your brain sharp — building pattern recognition and linguistic intuition
  • Teaches or learns English and wants an engaging way to explore vocabulary

Ian's Wordle Trainer doesn't just give you the answer — it teaches you how to think. Use the Practice Puzzle mode to drill specific words or random challenges, and you'll find yourself needing it less and less as the strategies become second nature.

The app uses three embedded word lists — nothing is fetched from the internet:

  • Common words — ~1,993 words, the primary NYT-style answer list. These appear as green candidates in Solve results.
  • Less common words — ~1,207 words, valid but less likely answers. These appear as amber candidates.
  • Obscure words — a larger pool used only to generate exclusion probe suggestions. Never shown as answer candidates.

All guesses during a practice puzzle are validated against the combined list. Only valid words are accepted.

Tap the 🔊 speak icon in any dictionary definition panel (by tapping a word) to hear the word spoken aloud using your device's built-in voice. Works offline.

Obscure words that match your constraints are shown as a fourth group in Solve results — below less common words. They are valid English words and legal guesses, but very unlikely to appear as the answer in a standard Wordle game.

The Strategy tab analyses the common words that still fit your current constraints and produces three live lists that update automatically.

Letter Frequency — every letter that appears in the current possible common words is counted. The percentage shown is how many of those words contain that letter. Letters are sorted most-frequent first so you can see at a glance which letters are most likely in the answer.

Best Exclusion Probe Words — these are words (from all word lists) that contain none of your already-tested letters and no repeated letters. Each is scored by summing the frequency percentages of its letters. The top 12 are shown. These are the best guesses for eliminating the most uncertainty in a single word — ideal when many candidates remain.

Best Common Candidate Words — the same frequency scoring applied to the current common candidate list. The top 12 are shown. These are your best direct answers — the words most likely to be correct based on the letter patterns in all remaining possibilities.

Optimised Exclusion Words — a smarter probe list that appears below the regular exclusion words when there are 2 or more common candidates remaining. Unlike regular exclusion words (which require all five letters to be completely untested), optimised exclusion words are selected from words that avoid only the gray letters — letters confirmed absent from the answer. Green and yellow letters are permitted, since including a known letter does not reduce the word's ability to reveal new information about the unknown ones.

Scoring works in two steps: first, each unknown letter (not green or yellow) is counted across all current common candidate words to find how frequently it appears in the remaining possibilities. Then each candidate probe word is scored by the sum of those counts for its unique letters. Words are ranked by their highest single-letter score first (so a word containing the rarest-but-most-needed letter always beats a word with several medium-value letters), then by total score. The top 12 are shown.

Example: if the remaining candidates are BAKER, AMBER, MAKER and the known letters are A, E, R — then B, K, M are the unknown letters scored by how many candidates contain them. A probe word containing M (appearing in 2 candidates) ranks higher than one with only B or K (each in 1 candidate).

When the lists update — automatically after every Add Guess, after every Solve, after deleting a guess row with ×, and after Reset. On first load with no constraints the full common word list is used, giving you the best statistical opening words immediately.

The ★ top pick in each list has the highest score. Tapping any word opens its dictionary definition.

Version: 12 May 2026 (SW v74)

Ian's Wordle Trainer is a free, open-source Progressive Web App. It runs entirely in your browser with no server, no account, and no data collection. All word lists are embedded directly in the app file.

It works offline after the first visit and can be installed to your home screen on iPhone, iPad, Android, and Mac.

The app updates automatically in the background whenever a new version is available — no manual update or App Store required. The next time you open it after an update, the latest version loads silently.

Dictionary definitions are available for any word in the Solve results. Tap a word to look it up — definitions are fetched from the free dictionary API and cached on your device so they load instantly on future lookups, even when offline.

Ian's Wordle Trainer is not affiliated with the New York Times or the official Wordle game.

  1. Open the app in Safari (not Chrome or Firefox)
  2. Tap the Share button — the box with an arrow pointing up
  3. Tap Add to Home Screen
  4. Tap Add

The app opens full-screen with no browser chrome, just like a native app. It works completely offline after the first visit.

  1. Open the app in Chrome
  2. Tap the ⋮ menu (three dots, top right)
  3. Tap Add to Home screen
  4. Tap Add

The app installs like a native app and appears in your app drawer. Works fully offline.

Open the app in Chrome or Edge, then look for the install icon in the address bar — a computer screen with a down arrow — and click it. Or:

  1. Click the ⋮ menu (Chrome) or … menu (Edge)
  2. Select Save and shareInstall Ian's Wordle Trainer
  3. Click Install

The app opens in its own window without browser chrome and is available from your Applications folder or Start menu.

Created by Ian Ladyman. I built this app to help you to learn to play Wordle better. The inspiration came from disappointing results when asking AI assistants for Wordle help, they were making logical and spelling mistakes. So I decided to build an App that actually returns correct and helpful information.

Ian's Wordle Trainer was designed and built with the assistance of Claude by Anthropic — an AI assistant that helped write and refine the code, strategy content, and documentation throughout development.

Word definitions are provided by the Free Dictionary API ↗ — a free, open community project.

Wordle was originally created by Josh Wardle. Ian's Wordle Trainer is an independent project and is not affiliated with the New York Times or the official Wordle game.

Version: 12 May 2026  ·  Cache: checking…

Checking for updates…

Choose a colour theme. Your choice is saved and remembered.

Replaces green/yellow with blue/orange for players with red-green colour vision deficiency.

Choose the body text weight — headings are unaffected. Bold is the default.

Adjust the size of all text and elements. Your choice is saved.

100%

Permanently deletes all training history records. Your app preferences and dictionary cache are not affected.

Resets all saved preferences — theme, text weight, instruction setting — back to the app defaults. Your cached dictionary definitions are kept.

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