You know that feeling when you type in a perfectly good guess and the game just stares back at you with five grey boxes? It’s frustrating. It's even worse when the actual answer turns out to be something like "GUANO" or "SNAFU." If you've been playing since the early Brooklyn basement days of Josh Wardle’s original site, you’ve probably noticed the words used in Wordle don't always feel the same as they used to.
There's a reason for that.
The game started as a love letter. Josh Wardle created it for his partner, Palak Shah, who loves word games. Because of that origin story, the initial list of 2,315 solutions was hand-picked. It wasn't just a random dump from a dictionary. It was curated to exclude the "mean" words. You weren't going to see obscure plurals ending in "S" or weirdly technical Latin botanical terms. But then the New York Times showed up with a checkbook in early 2022, and the vibe shifted.
The Curation Crisis: Who Picks the Words?
Basically, the NYT didn't just buy a URL; they bought a specific database. The game actually lives on two different lists. There is the "allowed" list, which contains nearly 13,000 five-letter words that you can use as guesses. Then there is the "solution" list. This is the inner sanctum. These are the roughly 2,300 words that can actually be the answer of the day.
Tracy Bennett, the Wordle editor at the New York Times, has the weirdest job in journalism. She’s the one who has to decide if a word is too "British" for an American audience or if it’s too obscure for a casual player. Honestly, the community gets heated about this. Remember when "FETUS" was removed from the rotation because it felt too politically charged given the news cycle at the time? That was a manual intervention.
The words used in Wordle are increasingly becoming a reflection of editorial sensibility rather than just mathematical probability.
Why the "NYT Era" Feels Harder
Is it actually harder? Sorta.
Mathematically, the pool of solutions hasn't expanded into the "allowed" list of 13,000 words. We aren't seeing "AAHED" or "XYLYL" as answers yet. However, the order has changed. The NYT famously removed some words they deemed offensive or too obscure, like "PUPAL" or "AGORA." They also started introducing more "curated" sequences.
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Sometimes the game feels like it's trolling you. You get _IGHT and you have to guess between LIGHT, NIGHT, FIGHT, SIGHT, MIGHT, and RIGHT. This is the "Hard Mode" trap. If you’re playing on the official Hard Mode setting, these words used in Wordle can literally end a 200-day streak in one morning because you simply run out of turns before you run out of consonants.
Strategy vs. The Dictionary
Most people have a "go-to" starter. ADIEU is the most popular, mostly because people are obsessed with vowels. It’s a bit of a trap, though.
Linguistics experts and mathematicians who have crunched the data—like those behind the 3Blue1Brown analysis—usually point toward "CRANE" or "SALET" as the statistically superior starting words. Why? Because consonants like R, S, and T are actually more valuable for narrowing down the field than a bunch of vowels that show up in almost every word anyway.
If you use "ADIEU," you might confirm the word has an E and an I. Great. But you still don't know if it's "FIELD," "BEING," or "QUIET." If you start with "STARE," you're hacking away at the most common structure of English words.
The Double Letter Nightmare
The absolute worst days are when the words used in Wordle feature double letters. "MUMMY." "SISSY." "VIVID."
Most players' brains are wired to look for unique tiles. When you see a green 'I' in the middle, your brain instinctively moves on to find the other four letters. You don't want to think there’s another 'I' lurking at the end. The NYT editors know this. They use these "repetition traps" to break streaks. It’s not a coincidence; it’s game design.
A Look at Recent Controversies
Remember "CAULK"?
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People lost their minds. It’s a common word if you’ve ever stepped foot in a Home Depot, but for a huge portion of the global player base, it was gibberish. This highlights the inherent bias in the words used in Wordle. The list is overwhelmingly based on American English.
If you’re playing in the UK, you’ve probably been burned by the lack of a "U" in "COLOR" or "FAVOR." The game doesn't care about your regional spelling. It follows the New York Times style guide. That's the law of the land.
Then there was the "KAZOO" incident. Or "FOLLY." These words aren't "hard" in terms of vocabulary level, but they are phonetically annoying. They use low-frequency letters like K or Z, or they use that "Y" suffix that feels like a wasted slot until it’s the only thing left.
The Psychology of the "Grey" Guess
Sometimes, the best way to figure out the words used in Wordle is to intentionally guess a word you know is wrong.
If it’s turn four and you have _ATCH, don't guess "HATCH." Then "PATCH." Then "WATCH." You will lose. Instead, burn turn five on a word like "WHAMP." (Yes, it's a word). By doing that, you check W, H, M, and P all at once. It’s a sacrificial play. It feels wrong to see all grey, but that information is more valuable than a "Maybe" guess.
The Future of the Word List
Eventually, the game will run out of the original 2,315 words. What happens then?
The NYT has already started recycling or subtly reshuffling. They have the power to add new five-letter words as language evolves. Will we see "TWEET" or "VIBES" or "CRING"? (Well, "CRINGE" is six letters, but you get the point). The "allowed" list is massive, but the "solution" list is a curated garden.
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The editors have a delicate balancing act. If the words are too easy (like "TRAIN"), the game is boring. If they are too hard (like "SWELL"), the casual players quit. The "sweet spot" is a word that makes you slap your forehead and say, "Of course!"
Mastering the Daily Grid
If you want to actually get better at predicting the words used in Wordle, you have to stop thinking like a dictionary and start thinking like a programmer.
- Avoid the Vowel Trap: Don't waste your first two turns on "ADIEU" and "AUDIO." You’re checking the same things twice.
- Consonants are King: Focus on the RSTLN group. There’s a reason those are the free letters in Wheel of Fortune.
- Position Matters: A 'Y' is almost always at the end. An 'H' is almost always in the second slot. Don't guess "HYENA" if you can guess "THORP."
- The "S" Factor: The NYT rarely uses simple plurals as answers. If you’re thinking the answer might be "BOATS," it probably isn't. It’s more likely to be "ABASH" or something that doesn't feel like a "cheat" plural.
Making Your Own Luck
At the end of the day, Wordle is a game of luck wrapped in a cloak of logic. You can have the best strategy in the world and still get beat by a word like "CYNIC."
The best way to stay ahead of the curve is to pay attention to the patterns of the current editor. Notice when they’ve gone on a "double letter" streak. Notice when they’re favoring words with "K" or "X." The words used in Wordle aren't just random; they are a conversation between the editor and the player.
To keep your streak alive, you should diversify your starting words. Don't be a "CRANE" loyalist for life. If you feel like the game is getting "weird," switch to a high-consonant starter like "SLATE" or "TRACE."
Next time you open that grid, remember: the word isn't trying to hide. It's just waiting for you to stop looking for the easy way out. Check for the double letters early. Don't fear the "Y." And for the love of all things holy, stop starting with "XYLYL."
Actionable Insights for Your Next Game
- Switch your starter: If you’ve been using "ADIEU" or "STARE" for months, try "SLATE" or "LEAST." These offer better positional data for the most common consonants.
- The "Elimination Word" Strategy: When you have three letters confirmed but multiple possibilities (the
_IGHTor_ATCHtrap), use your next turn to guess a word containing as many of the missing lead consonants as possible, even if it doesn't fit the green boxes. - Ignore Plurals: Keep in mind that the NYT solution list almost never includes basic "noun + S" plurals. If you're stuck, look for verbs or singular nouns instead.
- Check for Doubles: If you are on guess four and nothing is clicking, assume there is a repeated letter (like the two 'E's in "GEESE" or 'L's in "SPELL"). It is the most common reason for a broken streak.