Choosing the right starting word in Wordle maximizes the information you gain on your first guess. Here are the top openers, ranked by how much they narrow down the possibilities.
Top 10 Starting Words (by information gain):
1. SALET — Covers S, A, L, E, T — five of the most common letters. Expected to eliminate ~95% of possibilities. 2. CRANE — C, R, A, N, E — strong consonant-vowel mix. 3. SLATE — S, L, A, T, E — very high letter frequency coverage. 4. RAISE — R, A, I, S, E — three vowels for maximum info. 5. ARISE — Similar to RAISE with different letter positioning. 6. STARE — S, T, A, R, E — all top-15 frequency letters. 7. CRATE — C, R, A, T, E — good consonant coverage. 8. TRACE — T, R, A, C, E — balanced approach. 9. AUDIO — A, U, D, I, O — the vowel-heavy strategy. 10. ROAST — R, O, A, S, T — strong if you prefer consonant-heavy.
The Math Behind It Information theory measures how much a guess reduces uncertainty. The ideal first word eliminates the most possible answers regardless of what colors you get back.
Second Guess Strategy After your first guess, use UnscrambleKing's Wordle Solver to find the optimal second word based on your results.