A practical six-guess plan for solving Wordle

Six guesses are enough to solve a five-letter puzzle, but only when each row has a purpose. A useful plan is not a rigid sequence of words. It is a way to decide what information you need next, based on the feedback already on your board.

Guess one: collect broad information

Start with a word that tests several common letters and avoids repeated characters. A first guess with five different letters can give you more distinct signals than a word that spends two positions testing the same letter. Rankings are useful as a starting point, but no single opener guarantees a win.

Guess two: respond to the actual colors

After the first result, record every green position, every yellow letter, and every gray letter. Keep greens fixed. Move yellows to different positions. For gray letters, check whether another copy of the same letter was green or yellow before ruling the letter out completely.

Middle guesses: narrow the candidate set

Once the board contains several confirmed clues, use the candidate list to see which words remain possible. If many candidates share the same letters, a useful guess can test a letter that separates those possibilities. It does not always need to be the most likely answer, but it must be a valid guess in the game you are playing.

Protect the final two rows

With only two guesses left, avoid spending a row on a word that repeats information without distinguishing candidates. Compare the remaining words by their uncertain positions and letter differences. If the list is short, choose the candidate that best fits every clue rather than trying an unrelated word.

Use all six rows as a feedback loop

The best plan changes with the board. If a guess reveals a green letter, that position becomes settled. If a yellow letter appears, its old position is ruled out. If duplicate feedback appears, update the letter count. Enter every completed row in the solver so the full history is applied at once.

Remember what the candidate list represents

A reference dictionary can include valid five-letter words that a particular game does not accept. Treat the solver as a way to organize the clues and inspect possibilities, not as a promise that every result is an official solution.