Best Wordle starting words
A good opener is an information gatherer, not a lucky guess.
What makes an opener strong
Three things: letters that appear often in English five letter words, a spread of vowels so one guess prices them all, and no repeated letter, since a repeat tests one letter twice and learns half as much. Position matters too, because some letters love the ends of words.
Five worth rotating
SLATE balances common consonants with two vowels. CRANE does similar work with an R in play. ADIEU and AUDIO interrogate the vowels hardest, at the cost of weak consonants. ROATE is a solver favourite for pure letter coverage. None of them is magic; rotate two or three and learn what each one tells you.
The second guess matters more
Whatever the opener returns, spend guess two on five fresh letters that fit what you learned. Two disciplined openers shrink most boards to a handful of candidates, and from there the word usually names itself. Stuck anyway? Today’s ladder is one tap away.