Best Wordle Starting Words
Ranked by real letter-position frequency across every 5-letter word in this site's list - not a hand-picked or copied list. See how it's calculated below.
How the score works
Wordle answers are always 5 letters, so the best opener is the one that tests the most likely letters in the most likely spots. For every word in this site's 5-letter word list, we tally how often each letter appears as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th letter. Each candidate opener (restricted to words with 5 distinct letters) is then scored by adding up those five frequencies - so a word made of common letters in their common positions scores higher than one built from rare letters or unusual spots.
This is a mechanical, reproducible calculation from a public-domain word list, not a copied "best Wordle words" list - re-run it against a different word list and the ranking will shift slightly.
Already made your first guess? Enter your results into the Wordle Solver to filter down to the real possible answers, or browse every 5-letter word list.
Frequently asked questions
- How were these starting words chosen?
- They're computed, not copied: for every 5-letter word in this site's word list, we count how often each letter shows up in each of the five positions, then score every 5-distinct-letter word by adding up those position frequencies. CARES scores highest. Higher score means the word's letters, in those spots, match more common patterns across real 5-letter words.
- Why only words with 5 different letters?
- A repeated letter (like ARENA) wastes one of your six guesses testing the same letter twice. Sticking to 5 unique letters for an opener tests more of the alphabet at once.
- Does a high score guarantee a good opener?
- No single opener is provably "best" - it depends on the specific answer. This ranking is a solid, data-backed starting point, and you can narrow down from there with the Wordle Solver.