Wordle

[UnclePhilip]

Please, what is the best opening word?

I've been told AISLE, but am getting bored....

Uncle

[UncleEbenezer]

Please, what is the best opening word?

I've been told AISLE, but am getting bored....

Uncle

The rationale of that is presumably the three common vowels. Wordle is over-generous with feedback on those: a better-designed puzzle wouldn't admit of such an obvious choice of opening word.

If you want an alternative, try your own experiments. Bear in mind that consonants give you less useful information, simply because there are more to choose from.

Why not start with "Uncle" sometime? Or, um, arise to the prospect of equivalent openers.

[Itsallaguess]

Please, what is the best opening word?

I've been told AISLE, but am getting bored....

Use any random word with two vowels in it, and always try to change it between games.

It's more rewarding, and it'll prolong the enjoyment for you.

I personally think that using the same three-vowel starter-word all the time is almost cheating...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[6Tricia]

I mostly use ADIEU followed by STONY or any other word which gives me all the vowels. Record winning streak was 75 before ICILY put an end to it! Currently have solved 96% of 700 words. Failures have mostly been with words where E and A were together - too many options!

Tricia

[staffordian]

If you're happy to significantly lower the chance of getting the word in two or three lines, I would suggest* TERAI followed by CONUS then LYMPH.

If you've not got four or even five lettters after that, with at least one green one, you're unlucky, but even then, the rarer letters left mean it's often quite obvious what the answer is.

*Not my idea, I don't even know what the first two words mean it's just something I read which seems to work.

[staffordian]

Please, what is the best opening word?

I've been told AISLE, but am getting bored....

Use any random word with two vowels in it, and always try to change it between games.

It's more rewarding, and it'll prolong the enjoyment for you.

I personally think that using the same three-vowel starter-word all the time is almost cheating...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Maybe, but when Mrs Staffordian gets in in two or three lines using different random guesses every day, and I take four or five using the same three words, it makes me wonder why I do it this way

[Pendrainllwyn]

Tricky one today. Two letters after the first go and still only two letters after the fourth. Cracked it on the 5th. To keep it interesting I use a different starting word each time and it hasn't wordled me yet.

Pendrainllwyn

[servodude]

Tricky one today. Two letters after the first go and still only two letters after the fourth. Cracked it on the 5th. To keep it interesting I use a different starting word each time and it hasn't wordled me yet.

Pendrainllwyn

Yeah I got stuck pretty quickly today

[Clariman]

It would spoil it for me if I used the same starter every day. Boring. I go for the first 5 letter word that comes into my mind that has 2 vowels. I have also used words with letters that I tend to forget about e.g. C, K or G. This is more useful in quordle and octordle where there is a greater chance that one of the words will have the less common letter.

[tjh290633]

It would spoil it for me if I used the same starter every day. Boring. I go for the first 5 letter word that comes into my mind that has 2 vowels. I have also used words with letters that I tend to forget about e.g. C, K or G. This is more useful in quordle and octordle where there is a greater chance that one of the words will have the less common letter.

Vowels get you nowhere today. Got it in 3, which was a logical result once you had eliminated the vowels.

TJH

[UncleEbenezer]

Please, what is the best opening word?

I've been told AISLE, but am getting bored....

Uncle

Better explanation: you've "played out" wordle.

"Played out" is a term I use for a game I've played so often I have no more to learn or enjoy from it. Any more playing becomes a ritual, closer to addictive behaviour than entertainment. Or it's for the benefit of someone else, as in games with small children. Noughts and crosses is a game you play out quickly.

The very best games you can play for a lifetime without ever fully playing out. To my mind, the best of all is Go, and Chess is of course another. Other games are on a sliding scale, from Go or Chess to toddler-level.

I think this question suggests that you've played out wordle.

[moorfield]

The very best games you can play for a lifetime without ever fully playing out. To my mind, the best of all is Go, and Chess is of course another. Other games are on a sliding scale, from Go or Chess to toddler-level.

Too long! Backgammon, which tends to be a faster game than Go and Chess for those with short attention spans. With the doubling cube involved there a come a lot of similarities to options trading which I find fascinating.

[moorfield]

If you're happy to significantly lower the chance of getting the word in two or three lines, I would suggest* TERAI followed by CONUS then LYMPH.

If you've not got four or even five lettters after that, with at least one green one, you're unlucky, but even then, the rarer letters left mean it's often quite obvious what the answer is.

*Not my idea, I don't even know what the first two words mean it's just something I read which seems to work.

Indeed, these are the "go to" words I use, the first constructed from the six most frequent letters (EARIOT), the second from the next six (ONSLCU), and so on. One should aim not to duplicate any letters in the first two, or if necessary three, lines I think. These test all the vowels and half the alphabet in three goes, and should normally yield three or four yellow or green squares. Of the consonants that then remain, XZJQ (the least frequent) can usually be discounted as they won't obviously fit the solution. But it is quite possible that two of the three words yield nothing other than greys, which is often an indicator that some letters are repeated.

As TJH noted, the vowels got you nowhere today, but the third word came up trumps and caught a match on the remaining consonants.

[UncleEbenezer]

The very best games you can play for a lifetime without ever fully playing out. To my mind, the best of all is Go, and Chess is of course another. Other games are on a sliding scale, from Go or Chess to toddler-level.

Too long! Backgammon, which tends to be a faster game than Go and Chess for those with short attention spans. With the doubling cube involved there a come a lot of similarities to options trading which I find fascinating.

Fast backgammon with (liberal use of?) doubling cube?

Do you - or did you sometime in the past - play in the DPMMS common room?

[moorfield]

Fast backgammon with (liberal use of?) doubling cube?

Do you - or did you sometime in the past - play in the DPMMS common room?

No but in the nascent days of t'internet (early/mid 90s) I used to play a lot on FIBS as did many eminent names (I fluked a win against Kit Woolsey once). It's still going strong and I keep meaning to return one day...

[tjh290633]

Indeed, these are the "go to" words I use, the first constructed from the six most frequent letters (EARIOT), the second from the next six (ONSLCU), and so on. One should aim not to duplicate any letters in the first two, or if necessary three, lines I think. These test all the vowels and half the alphabet in three goes, and should normally yield three or four yellow or green squares. Of the consonants that then remain, XZJQ (the least frequent) can usually be discounted as they won't obviously fit the solution. But it is quite possible that two of the three words yield nothing other than greys, which is often an indicator that some letters are repeated.

I disgaree with your method. If a letter comes up green, use it again in that position. Any letters that come up yellow, use them again but in different places. Do not repeat any black letters.

I nearly got today's in two, but had the last letter wrong. You can infer where the yellow letters might go very quickly. Some two consonant combinations can be ruled out very early.

TJH

[JohnB]

I started with TRACE/FLOWS/DINKY, but realised I'd be always getting the answer in goes 4,5,6. I wanted to do better, so now starting with RAISE I then always try to use the letters I find, and I can get the answer 1-2 positions earlier. I'm on 2% 2s, 24% 3s, 36% 4s and the numbers are improving.

[moorfield]

I disgaree with your method. If a letter comes up green, use it again in that position. Any letters that come up yellow, use them again but in different places. Do not repeat any black letters.

It's about eliminating out as many high frequency letters as quickly as possible, rather than reusing what you have as soon as possible, if you see what I mean. But I agree I will sometimes attempt to solve on the third line if the first two have yielded three or four yellow or green.

Usually this gets it in no more than 4 tries, today worked well - with 2 of the first 10 high frequency letters yellowed it was still too difficult to guess. After the third word it then became obvious what the word ending wasn't (SH) and that a letter was likely repeated (having just the one vowel). XZJQ and a few more of the remaining consonants can then easily be discounted, leaving a strong possible candidate.

___Y_
____Y
Y___Y
GGGGG

(sorry typed on a mobile)

[Rob625]

Better explanation: you've "played out" wordle.

"Played out" is a term I use for a game I've played so often I have no more to learn or enjoy from it. Any more playing becomes a ritual, closer to addictive behaviour than entertainment. ...

I haven't played out wordle yet, though I can see it happening some time in the future. For now, I do several versions in different languages every day. You don't need to speak the language well or have a big vocabulary, but you do need some feel for the shape of words in a language. I also like quordle, because chasing down four words at once removes some of the chance element and give me a feeling that I am refining my strategy, always with the aim of reducing the number of tries to arrive at a full solution.

The variant that I most enjoy is called Qwordle https://qwordle.bhat.ca/, and it aims to bring quantum entanglement into the game:

How to play Qwordle
Welcome to the Quantum version of Wordle! Guess any one of two words in the entangled-pair in six tries.

Finding a good strategy for this one demands a bit more thought.

Enjoy! - Rob

[moorfield]

I disgaree with your method. If a letter comes up green, use it again in that position. Any letters that come up yellow, use them again but in different places. Do not repeat any black letters.

It's about eliminating out as many high frequency letters as quickly as possible, rather than reusing what you have as soon as possible, if you see what I mean. But I agree I will sometimes attempt to solve on the third line if the first two have yielded three or four yellow or green.

A fabricated but rather topical example! - with still at least four possibles after the first two lines (LEMON, MELON, FELON, BELON)

_G___
_YY__
G_G__
LEMON !