Vowel-heavy
Checks at least three vowels and still includes common consonants.
- RAISE100/100
- ARISE99/100
- ALONE95/100
- ALIEN95/100
- ROUTE93/100
Wordle starts tested with our own data
Best Wordle
starting words.
We ran 12,915 valid guesses against 2,315 likely answers. Words near the top leave fewer possibilities after the first turn. The main list keeps familiar words that could also be the answer.
12,915 guesses tested 2,315 likely answers 243 feedback patterns
Our top pick
Start with RAISE
raise
RAISE checks three vowels plus R and S. All five letters are different, and the word can also be the answer. Across our list, it left 61 possible answers on average.
Score your starting word- Information score
- 100/100
- Information gained
- 5.88 bits
- Average list left
- 61
- Different letters
- 5/5
Test your first word
How good is your opener?
Type any valid five-letter guess. The scorer runs it through the same 2,315 answers and handles repeated letters the way Wordle does.
0/100 information
- Information
- n/a
- Average answers left
- n/a
- Worst case
- n/a
- Expected colored tiles
- n/a
- Different letters
- n/a
- Vowels
- n/a
The ranking
Top 10 Wordle starting words
All ten use five different letters. Each is a familiar word from our likely-answer list.
| Rank | Word | Info score | Bits | Avg. answers left | Letter mix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | raise | 100/100 | 5.88 | 61 | 3 vowels · 5 unique |
| #2 | trace | 99/100 | 5.83 | 74 | 2 vowels · 5 unique |
| #3 | arise | 99/100 | 5.82 | 63.7 | 3 vowels · 5 unique |
| #4 | least | 98/100 | 5.75 | 78.2 | 2 vowels · 5 unique |
| #5 | alert | 98/100 | 5.75 | 71.6 | 2 vowels · 5 unique |
| #6 | alter | 97/100 | 5.71 | 70 | 2 vowels · 5 unique |
| #7 | later | 97/100 | 5.71 | 70.2 | 2 vowels · 5 unique |
| #8 | trade | 97/100 | 5.68 | 80.9 | 2 vowels · 5 unique |
| #9 | learn | 96/100 | 5.66 | 76.6 | 2 vowels · 5 unique |
| #10 | heart | 95/100 | 5.61 | 89.1 | 2 vowels · 5 unique |
Pick what you want to check
Best starting words by style
Consonant-heavy
Checks four consonants in one turn.
- CREST93/100
- TRASH90/100
- TREND89/100
- SMART89/100
- GRANT89/100
Pure information probes
These score well but are not in our likely-answer list. Some are obscure.
- SOARE100/100
- ROATE100/100
- RAILE100/100
- REAST100/100
- SALET99/100
Popular picks compared
Is ADIEU actually a good starter?
Four vowels sounds useful, but it leaves many consonant combinations untouched.
SLATE99
2 vowels · 71.6 answers left on average
Likely answerCRANE98
2 vowels · 78.7 answers left on average
Likely answerRAISE100
3 vowels · 61 answers left on average
Likely answerSTARE99
2 vowels · 71.3 answers left on average
Likely answerTRACE99
2 vowels · 74 answers left on average
Likely answerADIEU83
4 vowels · 123.7 answers left on average
Probe onlyAUDIO78
4 vowels · 183.7 answers left on average
Likely answerARISE99
3 vowels · 63.7 answers left on average
Likely answerADIEU checks four vowels and only one consonant. It left 123.7 answers on average. RAISE also checks R and S, cutting that average to 61.
Ten letters in two turns
Best two-word starting combinations
Each pair covers ten different letters. We scored the two feedback patterns together.
TRAIN+CLOSE
- Average left
- 4.5
- Combined info
- 9.56 bits
TRIED+SALON
- Average left
- 4.9
- Combined info
- 9.44 bits
SUITE+CAROL
- Average left
- 5.1
- Combined info
- 9.4 bits
TRIBE+SALON
- Average left
- 5.1
- Combined info
- 9.37 bits
Hard Mode note: these pairs are for players who always want to use a fixed second word. That word may break Hard Mode rules if it ignores a green or yellow clue.
The math
How we ranked the words
We played every valid guess against all 2,315 words in SpellScout's likely-answer list. Our simulator assigns greens first, then yellows from the letters still unmatched. That is how it handles repeated letters.
Answers with the same feedback pattern land in the same group. A useful starting word creates many small groups, since each result leaves fewer answers to check. The bits column reports Shannon entropy. The 100-point score compares each word with SOARE, the highest-scoring valid guess in this dataset.
SOARE is obscure and cannot be an answer in our list, so it is a poor headline recommendation. For the main table, we kept words with five different letters that appear in both the likely-answer list and the Google 10,000 English word list. The probe section shows the unrestricted results.
What to do after your first guess
After playing the first word, use the colors. Put green letters in their positions, enter each yellow letter in the position where it appeared, and exclude the grey letters. The five-letter Wordle finder will narrow the list and suggest your next guess.
Skip the memorized second word when the first guess finds several letters. At that point, working from the clues usually beats checking five unrelated letters.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Wordle starting word?
RAISE is our top pick. It scored 100/100, has five different letters, and appears in our likely-answer list. Three of its letters are vowels.
Is ADIEU a good Wordle starting word?
ADIEU checks four vowels but only one consonant. It scored 83/100 in our test and left 123.7 answers on average. RAISE left 61, so ADIEU is not our first choice.
Should a Wordle starting word use repeated letters?
Usually not. Five different letters give you five separate checks on the first turn. A repeated letter may still be worth playing when the word could be the answer, but it normally tells you less at the start.
What are the best two words to start Wordle?
TRAIN followed by CLOSE covers ten different letters and left 4.5 answers on average in our test. A fixed second word may break Hard Mode rules if it ignores a green or yellow clue.
This page uses SpellScout's 2,315-word likely-answer pool and 12,915-word valid-guess list. The scores describe this dataset; they cannot predict a future answer. SpellScout is not affiliated with The New York Times.