The world was behind wordle for a long time. I guess even now most people do play it but doesn't post about it as much. I have been playing for quite a time and I play it as a gap between my pomodoro timers. Read more about my productivity tips here.
While playing wordle, as with anything, I tried out a lot of words to figure out which ones are the best suited for arriving at the solution earlier. I am sure you would have heard about a few suggestion from your friends as well. Most people suggest ADIEU as the first word. I don't disagree, it is quite a good word. But it lacks a few consonants that might be essential for easier guessing. Let's talk about what I have learnt about the words usage in Wordle.
First word - AROSE
I ran a quick search for the most used consonants and vowels in the english words and came up with this word. I don't remember if it is the S or the R, but one of them is the most used letter in all of english words. This makes it easier to figure out if the letters along with the vowels AOE are present. I have had great experience using these words.
Second word - THUNK
This might be crazy, but I chose this word over PLUNK because I felt that the letter T occurs more than P. Also this word introduces the letters H and N which are again useful for eliminating many words if they are present.
Third word - BLIMP
This word again reduces the list of possible words and eliminates many other words. Also this concludes the list of all vowels with I. M is a letter that could again be present in the final letters of most words and helps us to figure out the solution if they are present.
Fourth word - CADGY
CADGY is a controversial word (have a look at its informal meaning) but it works for me as the fourth word. It reuses only A in a different location than the first word and also uses CDGY consonants which are most likely to be used. After this word is used, you will be left with only a few consonants that are not yet used like WXZ etc. It would be easier to pose a guess once you have this much information.
Best case vs the worst case
Using this strategy, I have always had a best case strategy of finding the solution at 3rd guess for 10% of the times, 4th at 40%, 5th at 37% and 6th at 7% of the times respectively. Take a look at my stats:
The worst case would be that you would be able to figure out by 5th guess. This has worked out really well for me till now.
Sample solution
Consider today's puzzle and how I reached the solution. This will give you an idea about how this strategy works.
Let me know in the comments about what your strategy is.
