You’re staring at a grid of gray boxes. It’s your fifth guess. The pressure is honestly suffocating. You have a few yellow letters dancing around, but the solution feels just out of reach. You think of a perfect five-letter word—CRANE or maybe SLATE—but then you pause. Wait. Has that been the answer before? If you’re playing the daily game, knowing the words already used in Wordle is basically the difference between a genius-level solve and a frustrating "X/6" failure.
Josh Wardle’s creation has changed since it moved to The New York Times. It's not just a simple list anymore.
The Myth of the Wordle Archive
Most players think there is a secret, untouchable list of words that will never, ever come back. That's not entirely true. While the game historically avoids repeating past solutions to keep the daily challenge fresh, the "NYT Wordle Editor" era, spearheaded by Tracy Bennett, has introduced a lot more human curation than the original algorithm.
The original source code contained a list of roughly 2,315 solutions. If you do the math, that’s enough to last until the late 2020s without a single repeat. But here is the kicker: the Times has already removed some words from the original list (like WENCH or FETID) because they felt a bit too obscure or offensive for a morning coffee game.
They also skip words. All the time.
If you’re tracking words already used in Wordle, you’ve probably noticed that common words like STARE or HEART have already had their moment in the sun. Using them as a first guess is fine—they are statistically great for narrowing down vowels—but using them as a fourth or fifth guess is a literal waste of a turn. You cannot win with a word that won on a Tuesday in 2023.
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Why the Past Matters for Your Opener
Starting words are a religion for some people. Some swear by ADIEU because they’re obsessed with vowels, while the data nerds at MIT usually point toward SALET or TRACE.
The problem? Once a word hits the "solved" list, its value as an opener drops. Sure, it can still help you find yellow and green tiles, but you’ve effectively robbed yourself of the chance to get a "1/6." There is no greater high in digital gaming than the "Wordle-in-one," and you’ll never get it if you’re recycling the past.
The List is Getting Slimmer
Every single day, the pool of potential answers shrinks. We’ve already seen heavy hitters like QUIET, PLANT, SNAKE, and CRAZE leave the rotation.
What’s left? A lot of weird stuff.
We are entering the era of the "Double Letter." If you look at the recent trends in the game’s history, the editors are leaning heavily into words that trip people up through repetition. Think MUMMY, PAPPA, or SASSY. People hate these. They feel like a trap. But since so many of the "clean" five-letter words—those with five unique, common letters—are already in the graveyard of past solutions, the game has to get harder to survive.
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Real Talk: The Tracy Bennett Factor
Before the NYT buyout, Wordle was a static list. You could literally look at the code and see what the answer would be in three years. Now? Not so much. Tracy Bennett actually curates the selections. This means the "past words" list is more of a guideline than a hard rule.
Sometimes, the game feels thematic. On Thanksgiving, you might expect something related to the holiday, though the editors often claim this is coincidental. If you’re looking at words already used in Wordle, don't just look for the words themselves—look for the patterns. The game has moved away from plural words ending in "S." You won't see BOATS or CARDS as a solution. They find that too easy. They want you to struggle with GUILD or HYDRO.
How to Actually Use This Information
Don’t memorize the thousands of words that have passed. That’s a waste of brain space. Instead, focus on the "Recent Memory" rule.
The New York Times rarely repeats a word within a few years, but as the game ages, the conversation about "resetting the clock" is getting louder. For now, assume that if you remember seeing a word as the answer in the last six months, it’s a "dead" word.
- Check the fan-made trackers. Sites like Rock Paper Shotgun or dedicated Wordle archives keep a running tally. If you have a "perfect" guess in mind, do a quick "Command + F" on a master list.
- Burn your favorites. If your go-to starting word was ROATE and it finally came up as the answer, let it go. It’s over. Move on to STARE or DEALT.
- Watch the vowels. Many past winners are vowel-heavy. As those are used up, we are seeing more words with "Y" as a pseudo-vowel or tricky placements like KNASH (though that’s a specific example of how spelling traps work).
The Difficulty Spike is Real
Have you noticed the game feels more annoying lately? It’s not just you.
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When the game started, the "easy" words were front-loaded. Everyone knows APPLE. Everyone knows BEACH. But we are now digging into the crates. We’re getting words that people barely use in conversation. This is why checking the archive is so vital. If you’re stuck between a common word and an obscure one, and the common one was used last July, go with the obscure one. It’s statistically more likely to be the current solution.
The Strategy Shift for 2026
We are years into this phenomenon. The strategy has shifted from "find the letters" to "eliminate the possibilities."
Most expert players now use their first two guesses specifically to eliminate the most common letters, regardless of whether those words have been used before. They don't care if SLATE was used in 2022; they use it because it clears out S, L, A, T, and E in one go.
But by guess three? That’s when the words already used in Wordle list becomes your Bible.
If you have _ A T E, and you’re guessing between PLATE, GRATE, and SLATE, knowing that PLATE and SLATE are already "dead" words saves you two turns. You go straight for GRATE. That is how you maintain a 100-win streak.
Actionable Next Steps for Your Daily Game
Stop guessing blindly. It’s frustrating and it ruins your stats.
- Audit your openers: If your favorite starting word has already been a solution, pick a new one today. You’re playing for the "1/6" dream, and you can't win if the word is retired.
- Keep a "Dead Word" tab open: When you’re down to your last two guesses and multiple words fit the pattern, check a database. It isn't cheating; it's using the available data to narrow the field.
- Focus on vowel-secondary words: Since many of the obvious "AEIOU" words are gone, start practicing with words that use "O" and "U" or "Y" in less common spots.
- Ignore plurals: Remember, the solution is almost never a simple four-letter word made plural with an "S." If you’re thinking of TREES, think again. Look for TERSE instead.
The game is evolving from a vocabulary test into a game of elimination. Treat the archive of past winners as your "discard pile" in a card game. Once you know what’s been played, you finally know what’s left in the deck.