How to play Wordle
Wordle gives you six tries to find one five-letter word. Every guess paints its letters green, yellow or gray, and those colors are the whole game: each new guess should spend what the last one learned. This page walks through the rules, the colors and a sensible way to open.
The goal
Guess the hidden five-letter word in six tries or fewer. There is one puzzle a day, and the answer is the same word for everyone playing it, which is why players can compare their colored grids without spoiling each other. There is no point score: naming the word inside six guesses is the win.
How a round works
Step 1 - Guess any five-letter word. Type a real five-letter word and submit it. The first guess is pure information gathering, so most players spend it on common letters.
Step 2 - Read the three colors. A green tile means the letter is in the word and in the right spot. A yellow tile means the letter is in the word but in a different spot. A gray tile means the letter is not in the word, beyond any copies already shown green or yellow in that guess. The keyboard under the board colors itself the same way, so you can see what you have learned at a glance.
Step 3 - Mind the duplicates. The answer can hold the same letter twice. Wordle colors each tile against the answer one copy at a time: if the answer holds one E and your guess plays two, one E can turn green or yellow while the other stays gray. That gray tile caps the count at one; it does not rule E out.
Step 4 - Spend what you learned. Keep green letters exactly where they are, move yellow letters to new spots, and build the next guess out of letters the grays have not ruled out.
Step 5 - Finish inside six. The round ends when you name the word or use your sixth guess. If the six guesses run out, the game shows you the answer and the round is lost.
Winning, losing and streaks
A solved puzzle is a win, and solving it in fewer guesses is the bragging right: the grid of colored tiles you can share after a round shows how many guesses you took without giving the word away. A missed puzzle is a loss. The game also tracks a streak, the run of puzzles you have solved on back to back days, and a loss ends it.
Good first moves
Open with five different letters. A first guess with no repeated letter tests five letters at once, and one packed with common letters and vowels learns the most. A set opener is fine: plenty of players start every puzzle with the same strong word.
Let the second guess obey the colors. Greens stay put, yellows move, and fresh letters replace the grays. A second guess that replays ruled-out letters wastes the one thing the first guess bought you.
Think in candidates before you type. List the words that still fit every color you have seen, duplicates included, then guess from that list. If the list is long, a guess that splits it, testing a letter several candidates differ on, narrows the field fastest.
Common questions
Can a letter appear twice in the answer?
Yes. The answer can repeat a letter, and the tiles judge one copy at a time, which is why a letter can show green in one spot and gray in another in the same guess.
Does a gray tile always mean the letter is out?
Not always. If the same letter also turned green or yellow in that guess, the gray copy only caps how many of that letter the answer holds. If no copy was colored, the letter is out.
Is there a time limit?
No. There is no clock on a round. You get one new puzzle a day and six guesses at it, and you can take those guesses at whatever pace suits you.