Wordle Solver
Narrow Wordle guesses from your clues.
Free · Runs in your browser · Nothing is uploaded
Type each guess, then tap the letters to match your board: grey = not in the word, yellow = wrong spot, green = correct spot.
Enter the guesses you have already made, tap each letter to match the colours on your board, and this Wordle solver narrows 12,578 five-letter words down to the ones that are still possible. It also ranks the best next guess by letter coverage. Everything runs in your browser, so your game is never sent anywhere.
Setting up a guess correctly
Type your guess into the text box, then click each of the five tiles beside it to cycle its colour. Tiles start grey. One click makes a tile yellow, another makes it green, and a third returns it to grey.
The colours mean what they mean in the game: grey is a letter that is not in the word, yellow is a letter that is in the word but in a different position, and green is a letter in exactly the right spot. Set every tile to match your board before reading the results, because a single wrong colour will silently exclude the correct answer.
Add a row for each guess you have made. Constraints accumulate, so the third guess narrows the list far more than the first — this is the whole reason the solver becomes more useful the deeper you are into a game.
The duplicate letter rule almost every Wordle solver gets wrong
Repeated letters are where naive filtering breaks, and it is worth understanding because it changes what the colours actually tell you.
Suppose the answer contains exactly one E, and you guess a word with two. Wordle marks one of them yellow or green and the other grey. A careless solver reads that grey tile as the letter E is not in the word and throws away the correct answer.
The correct interpretation is that the grey marks a limit rather than an absence. When a letter appears several times in your guess and at least one instance is coloured, the greys tell you the word contains exactly as many of that letter as were coloured — no more. If every instance is grey, then the letter genuinely does not appear.
This solver implements that rule properly. A letter marked both present and absent within one guess caps the count rather than eliminating the letter, so words with the right number of repeats survive the filter. It is the single most common source of a solver insisting there are no possible words when the answer was sitting there all along.
What makes a good opening word
Rank the full five-letter list by how often its letters appear across all candidates and the top openers are AEROS, AROSE, SOARE, AESIR, ARISE, RAISE and SERAI. The pattern is immediate: four common letters, three of them vowels, no repeats.
RAISE and AROSE are the two most people will recognise, and they are genuinely strong choices. Each tests five distinct high-frequency letters in one turn, which is the actual goal of an opening guess. You are not trying to win on turn one; you are trying to eliminate as much of the space as possible.
This is why guessing a word you think might be the answer is usually a mistake early on. A word with repeated letters wastes a slot testing something you already know, and an obscure word tests letters that rarely appear. Spend the first guess on information and the second on what the first told you.
SOARE and SERAI appear near the top because they are valid dictionary entries with ideal letter distribution, even though most players have never seen them. They illustrate the gap between what scores well mathematically and what a person would actually type.
How the suggestions are ranked, and their limitation
The best next guesses are scored by summing, for each distinct letter in a candidate, how many of the remaining possible answers contain that letter. Words made of letters that appear in many candidates score highest.
That is a reasonable heuristic and it is fast, but it is not optimal play. A genuinely optimal solver evaluates each possible guess by how evenly it would split the remaining candidates across all possible colour patterns, choosing the guess that minimises the worst case. That calculation is enormously more expensive and would not run comfortably in a browser tab.
There is a second limitation worth knowing: the suggestions are drawn from the remaining candidates only. Strong players sometimes play a word that cannot be the answer purely to test letters — if four candidates differ only in their first letter, guessing a non-candidate that tests all four at once can guarantee a win a turn earlier. This solver will never suggest that move.
Why the candidate list is larger than the real answer set
The dictionary here contains 12,578 five-letter words, which is far more than Wordle uses as answers. The game keeps two separate lists: a large one of words it will accept as guesses, and a much smaller curated one of a few thousand common words it draws answers from.
The answer list excludes obscure entries, most plurals ending in S, and archaic words. So the candidate count shown here will often be higher than the true number of possible answers, and the list will include words the game would never choose.
Use it as an upper bound. When the solver says forty possibilities remain, the real figure is usually smaller, and you can narrow it yourself by ignoring anything that looks too obscure to be a puzzle answer. When it gets down to a handful, the common word among them is almost always the one.
Using a solver without spoiling the game
There is an obvious tension in a tool like this. Used on your first guess it removes the puzzle entirely; used when you are stuck on your fifth it saves a streak.
The interesting use is after the fact. Finish the puzzle, then enter your guesses and see how many candidates remained at each step. It tells you which of your guesses actually gained information and which merely confirmed what you already knew — the most useful feedback there is for improving.
It is also genuinely helpful for the variants with harder dictionaries, and for playing in a second language, where the vocabulary rather than the logic is the obstacle.
Wordle Solver: choosing the right approach
Wordle Solver is designed around this task: Narrow Wordle guesses from your clues. When preparing input for wordle solver, specify the intended use and the details that must remain accurate. Use the instructions below to judge whether the current output fits that purpose.
Find candidates that obey the puzzle constraints. A dictionary word is useful only when its length, letter supply, position, and game rules fit the current puzzle.
An anagram uses a letter supply; a position-based solver uses placement constraints; a board game also introduces adjacency or scoring rules. A word that fits one kind of puzzle may be invalid in another.
Decide what would count as a successful result before you begin. For letter supply, known positions, and candidate words, that means checking the relevant constraint rather than choosing whatever looks most polished. Keep a short note of the intended audience or destination, any details that must remain exact, and the change you actually need. This gives you a basis for comparing alternatives and prevents a later edit from quietly changing the task.
Worked examples
CRANE with C green, everything else greyCandidates narrow to five-letter words starting with C and containing no R, A, N or EOne guess typically cuts the list by an order of magnitude when the greys eliminate common letters.
GEESE with the second E yellow, all other tiles greyWords containing exactly one E, not in position twoThe duplicate-letter case. Three greys on E do not mean no E — combined with the yellow, they mean exactly one E.
An empty board, asking for an openeraeros, arose, soare, aesir, arise, raise, serai, arlesRanked by letter coverage across all 12,578 candidates. AROSE and RAISE are the two most players will recognise.
Frequently asked questions
How do I mark the tiles?+
Type your guess, then click each tile beside it to cycle through grey, yellow and green. Grey means the letter is not in the word, yellow means it is present but misplaced, green means it is correct. Match your board exactly before reading results.
It says no words match, but I know the answer exists.+
Almost always a mis-set colour. Check any guess with a repeated letter especially carefully — and confirm you have not marked a tile green when the game showed yellow, which is the most common slip.
How does it handle a word with the same letter twice?+
Correctly. If one instance is coloured and another is grey, that caps the count rather than eliminating the letter — the answer contains exactly as many of that letter as were coloured. Only an all-grey letter is excluded entirely.
What is the best starting word?+
By letter coverage across the full candidate list, AROSE and RAISE are the strongest recognisable options. Both test five distinct high-frequency letters, which is what an opening guess is for.
Why does it list more possibilities than the game has answers?+
Wordle accepts a large guess dictionary but draws answers from a much smaller curated list of common words. This solver searches the larger list, so treat the count as an upper bound and discount obviously obscure entries.
Are the suggested guesses mathematically optimal?+
No. They are ranked by letter frequency across remaining candidates, which is fast and good. True optimal play evaluates how each guess would split the candidate set across every possible colour pattern — far more expensive, and it sometimes recommends words that cannot be the answer, which this tool never suggests.
Is my game data sent anywhere?+
No. The dictionary loads into your browser and all filtering happens on your device. Your guesses are not transmitted or stored.
What should I check when a known word is missing?+
Check the supplied letters, length constraints, and dictionary coverage first. A valid word in one game or region may be absent from another word list. Do not add unsupported letters merely to force the expected answer.
Why can a plausible answer still be wrong?+
An answer must fit every stated constraint, not merely resemble the topic. Check length, letters, positions, and clue interpretation separately. If one condition fails, keep searching. A confident explanation does not repair a mismatch between the candidate and the puzzle's actual rules.
How should I enter repeated letters?+
Preserve the available quantity of each letter. A candidate that needs two copies of a letter cannot be made from one copy unless the rules provide a usable blank or wildcard. Review the input carefully before interpreting a missing candidate as a dictionary problem.
Does the longest candidate always make the best choice?+
No. The best choice depends on the task. A board game may reward position and crossing words, while a clue may require a shorter answer. Compare candidates using the puzzle's actual objective rather than treating word length as a universal ranking.
Can dictionary differences explain missing words?+
Yes. Word lists differ in regional spelling, inflections, specialist terms, proper names, and game-specific rules. Check the dictionary accepted by your activity. A word can be valid in ordinary language while being excluded from a particular game or from the tool's available list.
How do I make a puzzle suitable for children?+
Use familiar vocabulary, clear instructions, and examples that match the intended age and experience. Test the puzzle yourself and avoid clues that require obscure cultural references. Difficulty should come from the skill being practiced, not from information the audience could not reasonably know.
What if two answers fit the same clue?+
Treat both as plausible until another constraint distinguishes them. For a puzzle you are writing, add a fair clarifying clue. For a puzzle you are solving, use crossing letters or other evidence. Do not force a single answer merely because it appeared first.
Should I reveal the answer immediately in a group game?+
Decide the rules before play begins. You might offer a hint, allow a timed attempt, or reveal the reasoning afterward. A consistent process is fairer than changing the assistance depending on who is playing or which answer you expected them to give.