How to Play Wordle

By Wordle Hint Today · Updated 2026-09-21

How to Play Wordle in Six Guesses

If you are learning how to play Wordle, the core rule is simple: you have six guesses to identify a five-letter word. Enter a valid five-letter guess, submit it, and use the colored tiles to understand how your letters compare with the answer. You solve the puzzle when all five positions are correct.

Wordle gives you one new puzzle each day. The official game is hosted by The New York Times; this site is an independent companion that provides hints, word filters and strategy explanations. You do not play the full game here. Use the official game for your guesses, then return here only when you want help or clarification.

The challenge is not just knowing five-letter words. Each row is a small piece of evidence. Green, yellow and gray tiles tell you which letters and positions remain possible. Learning how to play Wordle well means combining those restrictions across the entire board instead of treating every guess as a fresh start.

What Green, Yellow and Gray Mean

A green tile means the letter is correct and already in the correct position. Keep that letter in the same square when you build later candidates. In Hard Mode, you are required to keep revealed green information.

A yellow tile means the answer contains that letter, but not in the position where you placed it. Move the letter somewhere else on a later guess. A yellow R in position two tells you two things at once: R must be present, and position two is wrong for that copy.

A gray tile means that copy of the letter has no unmatched place left in the answer. When your guess contains only one copy of the letter, gray usually means the answer does not contain that letter. When your guess contains duplicate letters, however, you must read all copies together. One copy can be green or yellow while the extra copy is gray.

That duplicate-letter rule is the part of the Wordle rules most likely to confuse new players, so it is worth seeing a full example.

Repeated-Letter Example: APPLE vs. ALLEY

Suppose the answer is APPLE and you guess ALLEY. This is a practice example, not today’s answer.

The first letter A is green because APPLE begins with A.

The first L in ALLEY is yellow. APPLE contains one L, but the L belongs in position four rather than position two.

The second L in ALLEY is gray. The answer contains only one L, and the first L in the guess has already matched that available copy. There is no second L left to match.

E is yellow because APPLE contains E, but E belongs in position five rather than position four.

Y is gray because APPLE contains no Y.

The important lesson is that the gray second L does not mean “L is absent.” The yellow first L already proves that L is present. The combined row says: keep A first, move L, move E, avoid Y, and do not assume the answer needs a second L.

This is how duplicate scoring works in practice. When you learn how to play Wordle, always read repeated copies of the same letter as a group.

Build the Next Guess From All Previous Rows

After every guess, rewrite the problem mentally.

Start with the green pattern. If your board shows _ A _ E _, those positions are fixed unless you are deliberately making an exploratory normal-mode guess.

Next, list the yellow letters and the positions they cannot use. A yellow letter is not free to move anywhere; at least one position is already ruled out.

Then list gray letters, while checking for duplicate-letter exceptions. If a letter was gray in a single-copy guess, it is usually safe to exclude. If one copy was gray but another copy of the same letter was colored, the letter itself is still present.

Finally, ask which letters you have not tested. Early in the game, a good next guess often resolves several unknowns at once. Near the end, the priority changes from gathering information to choosing a word that can actually solve the puzzle.

How Hard Mode Works

Hard Mode does not change the daily answer. It changes which later guesses are allowed.

After a green letter is revealed, future guesses must keep that letter in the same position. After a yellow letter is revealed, future guesses must include that letter. This forces you to build directly from the known clues instead of temporarily ignoring them to test a completely different set of letters.

For many players, Hard Mode feels more logical because every guess must respect the board. It can also make certain patterns more difficult. If several words differ in only one position, normal mode may let you test several candidates at once with an unrelated word, while Hard Mode can force you to choose among them one by one.

Turn on Hard Mode in the official game’s settings before starting if you want that restriction. You can also follow the same discipline voluntarily in normal mode.

How to Play Wordle When You Have Only One Guess Left

The final row changes the strategy. You no longer have time to play a word purely for information. Your guess must satisfy every known clue and be a plausible answer.

Before submitting, run a quick checklist:

• Are all green letters in the correct positions?
• Are all required yellow letters present?
• Have you avoided the positions where those yellow letters were already ruled out?
• Have you removed gray letters, accounting for duplicate exceptions?
• If a repeated letter is possible, have you considered it rather than assuming five unique characters?

If several candidates still fit, choose one based on the evidence you have rather than historical superstition. Past answers can be interesting context, but the current board is the strongest data source.

Wordle Rules FAQ