The Best Wordle Starting Words, by Three Different Measures

The best Wordle starting word depends on what you want it to do. For most people, the practical answer is a familiar word that uses common letters and performs well across several measures. You do not need to replace a good routine for a tiny statistical gain.

An opener is simply your first guess. After its coloured feedback, the words that could still be the answer form a shortlist. A strong opener usually divides the answer pool into useful, manageable shortlists.

How we tested this

The current six-turn policy benchmark is temporarily unavailable. The first-turn information and shortlist figures still use the site's current 0 possible answers.

What does "best" mean?

The six-turn measure plays every tested answer to the end. Exact misses come first, then average guesses among successful games break a tie.

The information measure looks only at turn one. It uses Shannon entropy, a number that rises when the feedback splits possible answers into balanced groups.

The shortlist measure is more direct: how many answers remain on average after the first feedback? Because the last two measures stop after turn one, their winner need not be the word that performs best across a complete six-turn game.

Which measure should you use?

Use the six-turn ranking if you care most about finishing safely, then winning in fewer guesses. Use information or shortlist size when you want to study the quality of the opening move by itself. Exact miss counts still matter when rounded win rates look identical.

A word can split the pool beautifully on turn one and still leave awkward follow-ups. That is why a complete-game winner can differ from a first-turn winner.

Work through the practical choice

Compare reliability first, then average guesses. If two strong choices remain close, choose the one whose feedback patterns you understand best.

The tables show where CRANE, SLATE, TRACE, CRATE and other popular choices sit today. A small difference is real, but it does not automatically justify relearning your opening move.

Check your own starting word

The Opener Lab lets you compare any two first words. The top 50 rankings protect the six-turn solve before comparing successful-game length, with first-turn information shown alongside. The maths guide explains how each measure is calculated.