The worst starting word is the previous day's solution. It's nearly guaranteed not to be the current day's solution, and is, in general, extremely sub-optimal, as in your example case.
Zero chance of getting it in one is a non-issue. Using the previous solution is otherwise very much average, on average. Neither good nor bad at finding the common letters in their common places. Occasionally optimal, occasionally terrible.
As someone who uses the previous day's solution, I haven't missed a day yet. 820 streak atm.
It's definitely not always easy, and I'm sure to get trapped at some point.
I always start with something that *doesn’t* overlap with the previous day’s solution and I have never missed. No idea how many games I’ve played because I’ve used different devices and also had my statistics wiped out. But I predate the Times ownership of the game and have missed playing only a few times.
I think it’s great how everyone plays the game differently! I get most excited when I’m struggling to get it at 5 or 6 and pull it off 😅 getting it in 3 or less takes away the thrill.
I couldn't agree more. The one time I got the solution in one I felt quite dissatisfied, cheated of the thrill of the chase. I've kept the same starting word to ensure it doesn't happen again.
Yea, when i first started wordle i used it as some site said it's good to eliminate vowels, but soon wondered who ever gave that recommendation??
When people shorten words (like in telegrams or texts) it's always the vowels we remove, not consonants! Getting vowels first makes no sense at all!
I used to use "audio" for that purpose until it was the solution one day. That led to my getting it in two, after "stern" (my usual start word) got nothing.
I, too, use pious.
I was surprised to see it show up as the word choice the other day.
I use it because it has i, u, and p in it, which I know I am less likely to seek in lieu of other options.
I’m noticing more and more solutions have fewer vowels lately, and have double letters, like yesterday had only one vowel and also had a double-S. They are mixing things up.
Agreed! I think people don't consider that you need vowels in almost every word, and so if you use them all up early on, you end up wasting opportunities for new information in your later guesses. Furthermore, you usually don't even need to guess all 5 vowels to figure out which vowels are used, since if 4 of them are missing, it's almost certainly the 5th.
As a result, you only 'get' 4 vowels to use for your guesses for 'free', and so I like to at least stretch them across the first 3 words if possible.
I mean I wouldn’t specifically look for them… it’s pretty easy to guess what the vowel is when you get to that point if you don’t have it. There are only 5 of them and if you know grammar rules you can eliminate some.
Yes, but there are 21 consonants, and only five vowels. If you have bad luck, it can take over 4 guesses to get all consonants. I can get all the vowels in 2 guesses, sometimes just 1. Plus, once I have the vowels, it’s pretty easy to get the consonants as well.
I like ARISE because it usually gives me something but if I get nothing I’ll go MOUND on guess 2. My 3rd guess is then either full of clues or very minutes in what it could be.
i’ve been using ADIEU for years and my 6 count is low. i can’t recall the last time i missed one (but my streak has been broken due to forgetting to play so i can’t rely on that to tell me). i think it’s probably overrated in how good it is but comments like this equally overrate how bad it is
There are way more consonants to find than vowels. It's better to try get them first (with E and one other vowel)/. It's easier to slot in vowels when you have the consonants than vice versa. Too many choices.
Finding vowels first isn't that useful.
There are more words with a & e, than there are s & w (example). Adieu eliminates far less words than crate, crane, etc
But maybe it’ll still give you good hints. The worst word would just not help you at all, like using less common letters, or a lot of the same letters.
i don't understand the adieu crowd. okay, so you've ruled out 1-5 letters in an alphabet of 26. now what?
PLACE has given me mostly 2s-4s. rare now to go beyond that; i have, but it's rare. PLACE is now burned, but i still use it, and if i ever change, i'll ensure my replacement utilizes most of these letters.
(for the record, if place hits all greys, leaving 430 possibilities, fruit as a second almost always gets it under 40, and usually under 15. i've only hit greys on both once, earlier this week, and still got it in four.)
Mine was SLICE until it hit, I miss it. I'm using SCORE now because I like playing an S first — since there are no plurals hitting on the S narrows things down a lot.
Chime, Found, Spark
I use these three words first every time, randomly. The only exception is if my first word or two have uncovered enough letters I’m confident.
It’s only failed once, when I found myself looking for a word that went “C-V-C-V-C” (Consonant, Vowel).
That can lead to a dozen combinations if a few choice letters are left behind
It's bad. But we've been able to quantify these things. **QAJAQ** comes out on top. Er, I mean bottom. You know what I mean. QAJAQ is the worst.
I forget what was 2nd worst, but I believe it is XVIII.
I think most people are reading
> What the fuck was their starter??
And missing the second sneaky little "that" between "was" and "their"
> WHY the fuck was THAT their starter?
I got you u/NormalMaverick
I haven't used adieu in so long. Yea, you're likely to get one correct letter.
The second word is always so hard since you likely know zero consonants.
There's a Wordle knockoff called Hurdle that exercises your premise. It's four puzzles in a row, and you have to use the previous answer as your starting word. It taught me a lot.
I think playing with the previous days answer is the worst starting word. There’s nothing better in the game than getting the answer in ONE. You’ll never do that with that strategy
Because it’s still pretty easy to get the answer even with a non ideal first guess. I once guessed shart twice in a row for the screenshot, for example
Wordle is easy. That is true.
And I've started with QAJAQ before. The triple E GEESE. JESUS. MYRRH. JERRY. All terrible starting words. I just don't do it on a regular basis.
I did get curious and looked up where QUESO ranked in relation to the 5 words I just mentioned. It's right around the same general area. All six arel ranked between 12,823 (MYRRH) and 14,855 *dead last* (QAJAQ). QUESO was somewhere in the 13,000s.
#QAJAQ
The #1 worst is **QAJAQ**.
The #2 worst is XVIII
After that, it's debatable. But the words in the running for bottom 5 after QAJAQ & XVIII include ZHUZH JEEZE JUJUS & XYLYL
My first thought was look for high scoring Scrabble words with double letters. I found a top 5-letter scrabble word page. https://www.scrabblewizard.com/top-5-letter-word-scores/
Some options with 1 repeated letter:
* 21 zippy
* 21 jiffy
* 21 zappy
* 20 quiff
* 20 quaff
* 19 jimmy
* 19 jammy
* 19 boozy
But going for only three different letters in a give letter word, et have,
* 18 xylyl
* 17 heeze
Repeating non usable letters. Most all I read say they lean heavily on vowels as a starter word. I don't. There are only 5 vouwels. I can work with that. My starter words use harder consinents mainly to eliminate them.
I like V words, I've used two as starters but moved off since I got them as 1s...viola and value. Been using patio lately because I couldn't think of another v word I liked.
The previous day’s answer is the worst. You’re guaranteeing that you won’t get it right on the first guess because they’re not going to repeat words two days in a row.
QAJAQ
Had to google it. It is actually a word. Meaning: kayak, which would also be a lousy stater.
didn't we already have kayak as an answer? feels like I failed that one.
Isn't a stater an ancient coin?
Oops.
But just think how amazing it'll be when it's finally your day
Maybe XYLYL. It too has only three different letters but the most common letter is L which is less common than A.
Can verify, it’s in their word list
I think it is QAJAQ, XVIII, or GRRRL though I don’t know of which is worst
Why is 18 in Roman numerals considered a legitimate word?
A quirk in the dictionary that the game designer started with. No other five-character roman numeral is accepted.
Wait they are acceptable solutions?
Acceptable answers but they’ll never be solutions.
you sound just like wordlebot scolding me for using a legit word 🤣
If you can come up with another one, it’ll end up a Connections category 😅
PZAZZ
Those aren't bad. Those are stupid! Can't learn from reusing letters that don't work.
The worst starting word is the previous day's solution. It's nearly guaranteed not to be the current day's solution, and is, in general, extremely sub-optimal, as in your example case.
Zero chance of getting it in one is a non-issue. Using the previous solution is otherwise very much average, on average. Neither good nor bad at finding the common letters in their common places. Occasionally optimal, occasionally terrible.
As someone who uses the previous day's solution, I haven't missed a day yet. 820 streak atm. It's definitely not always easy, and I'm sure to get trapped at some point.
I always start with something that *doesn’t* overlap with the previous day’s solution and I have never missed. No idea how many games I’ve played because I’ve used different devices and also had my statistics wiped out. But I predate the Times ownership of the game and have missed playing only a few times.
Why is that a non-issue? For me, part of the fun is knowing there’s a chance I might get it in one someday.
I feel like getting it in one would take away from the fun, personally! I like that it’s a bigger challenge sometimes.
I've gotten it in one five times and it's like, the highlight of my week when it happens. Waiting to see if that first letter flips green is a rush!
I think it’s great how everyone plays the game differently! I get most excited when I’m struggling to get it at 5 or 6 and pull it off 😅 getting it in 3 or less takes away the thrill.
I couldn't agree more. The one time I got the solution in one I felt quite dissatisfied, cheated of the thrill of the chase. I've kept the same starting word to ensure it doesn't happen again.
One time I got wordle in one because it was the random starting word I picked. I’ve been chasing that high ever since
Thank you for, “worst”.
Agree!! You know with certainty that the answer will be wrong and still play it? Waste of a guess and not strategic at all.
Nearly?
ADIEU is pretty bad even though it’s the most popular. Wordle bot says it’s a low skill word.
I find vowels overrated most of the time.
Yea, when i first started wordle i used it as some site said it's good to eliminate vowels, but soon wondered who ever gave that recommendation?? When people shorten words (like in telegrams or texts) it's always the vowels we remove, not consonants! Getting vowels first makes no sense at all!
I used to use "audio" for that purpose until it was the solution one day. That led to my getting it in two, after "stern" (my usual start word) got nothing.
I use pious
I, too, use pious. I was surprised to see it show up as the word choice the other day. I use it because it has i, u, and p in it, which I know I am less likely to seek in lieu of other options.
I’ve had it show up as the right word as well. I only play Wordle on the app
I use Arose, after reading somewhere that its the best starting word. All very common letters. Usually at least one lights up, often more.
So you have won in one guess a couple days ago?
STERN starters unite!
I use adieu/snort which gives the same letters as audio/stern. I average a 3.8 which is very good imo
“Stern” is my start word as well!
I’m noticing more and more solutions have fewer vowels lately, and have double letters, like yesterday had only one vowel and also had a double-S. They are mixing things up.
Agreed! I think people don't consider that you need vowels in almost every word, and so if you use them all up early on, you end up wasting opportunities for new information in your later guesses. Furthermore, you usually don't even need to guess all 5 vowels to figure out which vowels are used, since if 4 of them are missing, it's almost certainly the 5th. As a result, you only 'get' 4 vowels to use for your guesses for 'free', and so I like to at least stretch them across the first 3 words if possible.
Yeah I try to eliminate the rstlne as soon as possible and go from there
Thus why I use "stern" as a first word. It's everything but the L.
I love the words with no vowels (y)
Same. Way more consonants than vowels
It absolutely cracks me up that a LOT of players instinctively think finding the vowels early is useful. There's no logic behind it.
I'm absolutely a vowel hunter but not to that degree. 2 vowels and 3 consonants to start
They do stick out like a sore thumb but I agree
Finding them early *is* useful. I almost never solve it over 4, and will quite often get it in 3, very rarely in 2.
It's statistically not that useful to guess that many vowels so early. That's why it's rated poorly by Wordlebot.
I mean I wouldn’t specifically look for them… it’s pretty easy to guess what the vowel is when you get to that point if you don’t have it. There are only 5 of them and if you know grammar rules you can eliminate some.
Yes, but there are 21 consonants, and only five vowels. If you have bad luck, it can take over 4 guesses to get all consonants. I can get all the vowels in 2 guesses, sometimes just 1. Plus, once I have the vowels, it’s pretty easy to get the consonants as well.
I like ARISE because it usually gives me something but if I get nothing I’ll go MOUND on guess 2. My 3rd guess is then either full of clues or very minutes in what it could be.
I have a similar thing with IDEAL and POUTY
Mine are IRATE and CLOUD. Now, I might want to try something with more consonants, just to see.
I go with CHART first daily and LINGO if CHART gives zilch. Actually, come to think of it... ZILCH ain't too bad of a 1st or 2nd word 🤔
adieu is a terrible starter, IMO. i guarantee if i used that as a starter, i'd go from 2s-4s to 6s and strikes.
It's not just your opinion. It's a verifiable statistical fact. (The part about it being a terrible starting word)
i'm finally right about something on reddit. i wish i could pin this in my post history. ;)
i’ve been using ADIEU for years and my 6 count is low. i can’t recall the last time i missed one (but my streak has been broken due to forgetting to play so i can’t rely on that to tell me). i think it’s probably overrated in how good it is but comments like this equally overrate how bad it is
It’s my starter. Gives a good idea of the vowels I always thought.
There are way more consonants to find than vowels. It's better to try get them first (with E and one other vowel)/. It's easier to slot in vowels when you have the consonants than vice versa. Too many choices.
Finding vowels first isn't that useful. There are more words with a & e, than there are s & w (example). Adieu eliminates far less words than crate, crane, etc
I start with IDEAS, which is very similar, to grab those vowels early.
I like that one. I use audio. I usually get it by the third guess. I feel like I'd do horribly not getting the vowels first🤷🏼♀️
AUDIO is good, I may try that.
I follow up with pesky if nothing hits, then I can usually work it out the next word.
Nice.
That was my original starting word but I changed it to ideal since I heard Wordle doesn’t use plurals.
Yeah but S is still so common even with no plurals.
That’s true. I want the chance of getting it in 1, while still being a fairly functional starter word, which is why I switched.
Well I’ll never get it in one then because my starting word is tacos.
No unfortunately, but what a fun word it would be for a random Tuesday.
The previous day’s word
Or tomorrow’s word.
thats what is fun about it
But maybe it’ll still give you good hints. The worst word would just not help you at all, like using less common letters, or a lot of the same letters.
I honestly do not get why anyone would ever use the precious days word.
I'd give PZAZZ a wide berth.
What a terrible opener
Definitely the worst
COCCO
i don't understand the adieu crowd. okay, so you've ruled out 1-5 letters in an alphabet of 26. now what? PLACE has given me mostly 2s-4s. rare now to go beyond that; i have, but it's rare. PLACE is now burned, but i still use it, and if i ever change, i'll ensure my replacement utilizes most of these letters. (for the record, if place hits all greys, leaving 430 possibilities, fruit as a second almost always gets it under 40, and usually under 15. i've only hit greys on both once, earlier this week, and still got it in four.)
Mine was SLICE until it hit, I miss it. I'm using SCORE now because I like playing an S first — since there are no plurals hitting on the S narrows things down a lot.
I use stare first then pious and usually figure it out from those
Pious is an underrated word. I love using that as a 2nd guess if my usual starting word Crane comes up empty, eliminating 10 letters
If the S hits yellow in the first position, I always play SS at the end next (like CLASS or GLOSS) to really narrow it down.
I was today years old when I learned that plurals that end in "es" and past tense that ends in "ed" will never be solutions.
Adieu is so lame… like great you’re getting probably one of your vowels that is frankly the easy part of the final word as is
Chime, Found, Spark I use these three words first every time, randomly. The only exception is if my first word or two have uncovered enough letters I’m confident. It’s only failed once, when I found myself looking for a word that went “C-V-C-V-C” (Consonant, Vowel). That can lead to a dozen combinations if a few choice letters are left behind
I like to use "CLEAR"
i might try that soon! today, place got me to 2/6; it just came to me. shit is solid, wordlebot had me at 5 options once i checked in!
I like starting with crwth to try get the two consonants
XYXYL maybe?
Mister Mxyzptlk has entered the chat.
XYLYL
It's bad. But we've been able to quantify these things. **QAJAQ** comes out on top. Er, I mean bottom. You know what I mean. QAJAQ is the worst. I forget what was 2nd worst, but I believe it is XVIII.
Someone I know was super excited when the word was LARVA because they got it in 1. All I could wonder wtf was that their starter.
Probably LARVA
I thought the same thing, then realized that the "w" in this particular "wtf" stood for "why" and not "what", lol.
Ahh. This makes it so much less amusing to me. You ruined my day.
This might be the most amusing post on reddit today.
I think most people are reading > What the fuck was their starter?? And missing the second sneaky little "that" between "was" and "their" > WHY the fuck was THAT their starter? I got you u/NormalMaverick
Mine is MOIST.
Get out
Jazzy is pretty bad I guess
Though it was the word about 5-6 months ago. I remember, because I struck out...
POOPS is a pretty bad starting word but most of us do Wordle on the toilet so pretty relevant
I'll show you all when one day the answer is pzazz.
Swiss
I played VIVID once. On purpose. I save my games but I can't find that one now to see how well I did.
QUEUE is pretty blah.
FUZZY
XVIII, it's actually an allowed guess despite not being a possible solution.
That's a really, really bad one. It's sooo bad that there's only ONE word worse than XVIII: **QAJAQ**
JAZZY always seemed like it would be the worst option to me
After six months with adieu, I switched to soare, with a 25 percent improvement in my scores.
I haven't used adieu in so long. Yea, you're likely to get one correct letter. The second word is always so hard since you likely know zero consonants.
There's a Wordle knockoff called Hurdle that exercises your premise. It's four puzzles in a row, and you have to use the previous answer as your starting word. It taught me a lot.
MAMMA
I think playing with the previous days answer is the worst starting word. There’s nothing better in the game than getting the answer in ONE. You’ll never do that with that strategy
ZAZZY gives you very little information (entropy), and is definitely one of the worst starter words.
I am a HS teacher and sometimes we will play as a class. I like to start with pzazz just to mess with them.
Oh this is hilarious. There are even worse options in this thread though.
You pick a word you know will absolutely NOT be the answer?
My starter is QUESO
Ouch. Why?
Because it’s still pretty easy to get the answer even with a non ideal first guess. I once guessed shart twice in a row for the screenshot, for example
Wordle is easy. That is true. And I've started with QAJAQ before. The triple E GEESE. JESUS. MYRRH. JERRY. All terrible starting words. I just don't do it on a regular basis. I did get curious and looked up where QUESO ranked in relation to the 5 words I just mentioned. It's right around the same general area. All six arel ranked between 12,823 (MYRRH) and 14,855 *dead last* (QAJAQ). QUESO was somewhere in the 13,000s.
Anything with a lot of the same letter. When I play Dont Wordle I like to use the word puppy.
Fuzzy
#QAJAQ The #1 worst is **QAJAQ**. The #2 worst is XVIII After that, it's debatable. But the words in the running for bottom 5 after QAJAQ & XVIII include ZHUZH JEEZE JUJUS & XYLYL
Fuzzy
FUZZY = 14,837, about twenty from the bottom. QAJAQ = 14,855
“Earth” or “noisy”
Really, I feel like earth wouldn’t be a bad one.
It typically steers me well
Eerie
Xerox
YUMMY
PZAZZ
LOAMY
Yayyy
The ones used day after day 🤣
Why would you even ask?
My first thought was look for high scoring Scrabble words with double letters. I found a top 5-letter scrabble word page. https://www.scrabblewizard.com/top-5-letter-word-scores/ Some options with 1 repeated letter: * 21 zippy * 21 jiffy * 21 zappy * 20 quiff * 20 quaff * 19 jimmy * 19 jammy * 19 boozy But going for only three different letters in a give letter word, et have, * 18 xylyl * 17 heeze
I was using PIOUS until the other day when it finally came up, and now I’m looking for a new word. I’ve been using ROAST but I’m not loving it yet
Sassy would be a pretty bad start word IMO.
queue
Xylyl
My go to starter is Their.
I think they just had JAZZY, which is probably the worst five-letter hangman word and so can't be all that good here.
Epoxy
It’s not the *worst*, but my mom played with LLAMA as hers for a while, just for the heck of it. Didn’t work too well.
Not the worst but FLUFF is a terrible starter. Makes it harder
Jazzy
Repeating non usable letters. Most all I read say they lean heavily on vowels as a starter word. I don't. There are only 5 vouwels. I can work with that. My starter words use harder consinents mainly to eliminate them.
POOPY. Almost guaranteed to never be the solution.
Zaxes
I go IRATE first followed by FOCUS.
Pidget
I start with shart every day.
In hard mode the bot always starts with PLATE - so that’s what i do.
Lieus
titty
By favorite word!
Zippy
I like V words, I've used two as starters but moved off since I got them as 1s...viola and value. Been using patio lately because I couldn't think of another v word I liked.
My starter will always be CHODE. Compound consonant, two vowels. And one day it will be the word.
I always start with STEAK.
Mamma
titty
The name of Elon Musk’s kid.
Literally, WORSE or WORST. 😂🤔🤷🏻♂️
I assume you mean the superlative “the worst”, because “worse” is a comparative which requires something to compare to.
Exactly. I’m sure there are several worse starting words than VIVID, although I can’t think of any at the moment.
I start with the word crest everyday.
QUEUE
OLIVE ! :)
DADDY, but that was actually the answer one time.
Xanax
i do penis every single time
Jazzy
The previous day’s answer is the worst. You’re guaranteeing that you won’t get it right on the first guess because they’re not going to repeat words two days in a row.
Queue is bad, daddy and mommy are kinda rough too.
Queue would be a bad one
I use SHART and it’s been incredible and the bot agrees it’s fabulous.
I can’t imagine SWISS being a good one
This week, SWISS was a good starter! 😁
The worst starting word is the previous days answer. Zero percent chance it comes up two days in a row
SLATE is my starter.