Introducing My Wordle Strategy

I’ve been enjoying Wordle¹ daily since before the New York Times. I like the game because of how little time it takes to play, and how rewarding it is to get the answer.

Here’s how my Guess Distribution looks today:

1. 0
2. 20
3. 148
4. 208
5. 196
6. 50

I’ve missed only 8 games, mostly by not guessing correctly within six tries, but also due to not playing a couple of times.

What’s my starting word? It’s STEAM.

In general, my strategy is to enter guesses that end in Y, and to choose words that contain repeated letters.

For example, suppose the letter E was flagged as correct but in the wrong position (STEAM). My next guess is usually NEPER, which, like the decibel, is a unit of measure for logarithm-based quantities.

And suppose the letter E was flagged as correct and in the correct position (STEAM). My next guess might be NEEDY.

Another favorite second guess is when both the E and M are correct but in the wrong position (STEAM). My guess then is EMCEE, after which I know exactly where the E(s) belong(s).

I’ll follow up with more second guess words next week. Meanwhile, please let me know what your starting word is and why.

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¹https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html