'If you consistently get Wordle in 3 or less, you are cheating': Players of the popular word game use shortcuts of all kinds (2024)

FAQs

Is it true that if you consistently get Wordle in 3 or less you are cheating? ›

A new survey from the game website Solitaired found that 29% of those polled believe people who regularly solve Wordle in short order — meaning in three guesses or fewer — are probably employing less-than-honest means to achieve their impressive results. Still, not that many Wordle players say they actually cheat.

If you can consistently get Wordle in three guesses, you are pretty darn good. A score of three is solidly above average, and it is certainly nothing to frown at. Especially with harder words such as “cynic,” “vivid,” or “swill,” getting it in three is very good.

In a survey of Wordle users conducted by Solitaired, about 10% of Wordle players admitted to cheating, most of them doing so strategically once or twice a week. It is very easy to cheat — spoilers abound on the internet, and you can solve the day's Wordle first on another device or in private mode.

A player attempts Wordle on their phone in front of a white background with "Wordle" written in black text. Today's Wordle answer is evading nearly 30 percent of players, The New York Times—which has been publishing Josh Wardle's beloved word puzzle since buying it in 2022—said on Twitter.

So if we guess BIPED to start out with, there's a 91/2315 = 3.93% chance that we get the Wordle in two (so long as our second guess is from the 2315 word answer list).

“But really it was like my seventh try, or eighth try.” It's important to switch after your fifth try, she stressed, because if you get to the sixth and don't get it, the game is over because Wordle automatically tells you the word.

Sweden is the world's best country at Wordle, with an average of 3.72. The US is ranked #18 in the world for Wordle, with a national average of 3.92. The American state with the best Wordle average is North Dakota (3.65). The US city with the best Wordle scores is Saint Paul, Minnesota, with an average of 3.51.

Spencer Evans was the one whose accomplishment impressed me the most: 83 unbroken wins and counting. A wordsmith himself, Evans first discovered Wordle earlier this month.

As Loren Mowszowski says, “People who are good at Wordle can be chuffed about their language and problem-solving skills but I don't think they can lay claim to being 'smarter', per se.”

Is Wordle based on luck or skill? ›

Winning Wordle—the daily online word game currently captivating the internet—requires a healthy dose of luck. Players have six chances to guess a five-letter word. Every time they guess the correct letter in the correct spot, it turns green.

In the case of Wordle, when the New York Times' server sends the website data containing Wordle to your computer, that data (now running off your computer) accesses the local storage to see if that user has played before. If the user has, then Wordle will load the user's stats.

And the first result that popped up from Real Statistics Using Excel (which seemed credible) said: “Since there are 2,315 possible target words in Wordle, the probability that you will guess the target in exactly one try is 1/2315 = 0.000432.

The odds get marginally better every subsequent game (e.g., 1 in 2,314; 1 in 2,313) assuming the correct answer isn't a repeat of the previous days' solutions. With that in mind, it's highly unlikely that 1% of all players are guessing correctly on the first try — and much more likely that some folks are cheating.

You must have found the correct word already. If not, let us give you the answer right away. The answer to Wordle 333 is 'SCOUR'.

What is the best Wordle starting word? The New York Times' Wordlebot originally recommended Wordle users on regular mode start with the word CRANE. But, as of August 2022, Wordlebot now recommends the word SLATE. If you're on hard mode, the recommended word has gone from LEAST to DEALT.

1-3 minutes, although I have had my pen & paper days. Mostly less than a minute, unless the word is totally a rare word.

In hard mode, Wordle can be solved in 3.5076 guesses on average (with 6 guesses at worst, i.e. 100% of the time).

If this is indeed the pattern that Wordle returns, then you have a 1/246 chance of picking the correct target on the second try (e.g. by choosing the word shown in Figure 1 for that pattern).

What's the best strategy for Wordle? ›

Players can also go back and have a go at any old Wordles that they missed, allowing multiple games to be played in the same day. If you have an iPhone, follow these steps to do it: Go into 'Settings' on your phone and click on 'General' Select 'Date and Time' and then un-tick 'Set Automatically'

The answer can still be plural like GEESE or FUNGI, but it will never be FOXES or SPOTS. Players can still guess words ending in "s" or "es" to narrow down the answer.

Once your Wordle streak is gone, it's difficult to get it back. There used to be a way to get your score back by going to the old Wordle website, but unfortunately, that website has shut down. There is now only one way to get your Wordle streak back. This involves changing the date on your phone.

The Free Dictionary lists more than 158,000 words with five letters. The the Official Scrabble Dictionary (which allows some pretty obscure five-letter words), puts the number at about 9,000.

A 'streak' in Wordle is the number of consecutive times you have correctly guessed the word in a game of Wordle. If you don't play then your 'current streak' will end but your 'max streak', which is the highest streak you have ever had (and can be the same as your 'current streak') will remain unchanged.

The simplicity of the game eventually led to it becoming a social media sensation. According to Statista, the average amount of Wordle players went from around 90 in November of 2021 to around 300,000 on January of 2022, gaining over 2 million players only a week later.

Wordle keeps track of how many times you've played, what percentage of games you've won, along with your current streak. If you miss one, that streak is reset to zero, which can be a pretty big blow if you're gone for weeks or even months without missing a single word.

How good someone is at Wordle will generally reflect their cognitive profile, Loveday told Newsweek, adding that this same factor also shapes how we approach most other tasks. Working memory, for instance, is a particularly important skill for Wordle, Loveday added.

What are the benefits of solving Wordle? ›

Your Wordle score is actually a measure of two separate and yet equally important components that contribute to your overall intellect: your vocabulary, or fund of knowledge, and your ability to recognize patterns.

In November 2022, the Times employed a dedicated editor, Tracy Bennett, to select the word of the day from a curated list. Speaking in January 2023 to Today she explained that the words are initially selected by a random system but she then checks each word for suitability.

The best part? Games like Wordle are a great stimulation activity that protect brain function and help prevent dementia and cognitive decline.

There's no sign-in for Wordle; it tracks your ongoing progress using cookies(opens in a new tab).

Keep in mind that Wordle tells you when a letter is not duplicated, too. If you use two of the same letter in a word, and only one of them turns yellow or green, then there is only one copy of that letter in the correct Wordle answer.

Wordle tracks stats, most notably streaks—how many games in a row you've played without blowing it. The problem is that those stats are based on device, rather than player, so if for example you play Wordle on your PC and your mobile phone, your stats and streaks will be different on each.

A good strategy to employ for the first word is to use as many vowels as you can. There are several five-letter words that have four vowels, which puts them at the top of the list of candidates to use first every day in Wordle.

Recently launched, the Quordle is as popular as the Wordle. Here are the hints and answers of today's Quordle #476, May 15, 2023. Unlike Wordle, Quordle is to be solved in nine attempts and not six. The words to be guessed may be tougher for some while easier for others.

Start with a word that has a lot of vowels.

Some Wordle players have found success in starting with a word that has several vowels in it. “Adieu,” “audio” or “canoe,” for instance, may be good words to start with because at least three out of the five letters are vowels.

Can you attempt old Wordles? ›

Bottom Line. Although Wordle releases only one puzzle a day, there are a few ways you can access and play past Wordles, including by changing the date on your device or via an archive site.

The answer to Wordle puzzle 369 is BRINK.

Spencer Evans was the one whose accomplishment impressed me the most: 83 unbroken wins and counting. A wordsmith himself, Evans first discovered Wordle earlier this month.

What is the probability of getting the word in Wordle correct in 1 try? Wordle has about 2314 possible answers. So the probability of getting it right on the first try is 1/2314 = 0.0004=0.04% approximately.

Does Wordle repeat letters? You might have learned this already (and done so the hard way), but yes, absolutely letters can repeat in Wordle puzzles. This complication is actually one of the major sources of difficulty for many players.

Start with a word that has a lot of vowels.

Some Wordle players have found success in starting with a word that has several vowels in it. “Adieu,” “audio” or “canoe,” for instance, may be good words to start with because at least three out of the five letters are vowels.

The best word to start Wordle with is "STARE". A and E are the most commonly used vowels in English, while T and R are the most commonly used consonants.

Over 15% of Wordle's words of the day start with S. Only six other starting letters appear in more than 5% of Wordle words. In order of frequency, they are C, B, T, P, A, and F. These starting letters might seem pretty surprising, but they are close to the order of general five-letter words.

The least common letters in all words are the usual suspects: J, Q, Z, X, and it's unlikely any five-letter Wordle word would contain any of those characters. F, V, and K are also uncommon, but these letters have higher odds of being in one of the five possible Wordle positions.

There is a way to see whether a Wordle solution includes a double letter via the game's established cue system. If you enter a word with two or more of the same letter as an assumption, it will be treated the same as any other attempt.

Can you tell if there is a double letter in Wordle? ›

Yes, you can check to see if a letter is used twice in a Wordle by counting the number of occurrences of each letter in the Wordle. If a certain letter appears more than once, then it has been used twice in the Wordle.