Wordle is the five-letter guessing game that conquered group chats everywhere — and it takes about two minutes to learn. You get six attempts to uncover the day’s word, and every guess returns colour-coded clues about which letters belong. This guide covers the rules at a glance, exactly what each tile colour means, how repeated letters behave, what Hard Mode changes, and the seven mistakes that catch out almost every beginner.
Wordle Rules at a Glance
- Type any valid five-letter English word as your opening guess. Choose one with five different letters and a couple of common vowels — every new letter you test buys you information.
- Read every tile after each guess. Green means the letter is correct and in the right place; yellow means the letter is in the word but in the wrong place; grey means the letter is not in the word — with one repeated-letter exception explained below.
- Build each new guess from the evidence. Lock in your greens, move yellows to fresh positions, and never replay a grey letter unless you are deliberately testing a double.
- Solve the word within six rows. There is no timer and no penalty for thinking — but run out of guesses and the answer is revealed instead of solved.
What Green, Yellow and Gray Tiles Mean
Green — Right Letter, Right Spot
A green tile locks a letter into place. The letter is correct and correctly positioned, and every future guess should keep it there — in Hard Mode the game enforces this for you. Two or three greens on the board usually means the puzzle is nearly cracked; the remaining work is filling the gaps around them.
Yellow — Right Letter, Wrong Spot
A yellow tile tells you the letter is in the answer, but not in the position you tried. Your next guess must move it somewhere new. The classic error is sliding a yellow straight back into the same slot — the tile stays yellow, and you have learned nothing.
Gray — Letter Not in the Word
A grey tile means the letter does not appear in the answer at all — with one important exception. If your guess contains a letter twice and the answer contains it only once, the extra copy turns grey even though the letter itself is present. Read that grey as “no additional copy here”, not “this letter is absent”.
How Repeated Letters Work
About one in six Wordle answers contains a repeated letter, and the tiles handle doubles with a simple rule. Imagine the guess EERIE against an answer with a single E: the correctly placed E turns green (or yellow), while the spare E turns grey because there is no second E to find. That grey E never meant the letter was absent — it meant you had already found all the Es there were.
The practical lesson: when most letters are confirmed and nothing fits, stop hunting for a fifth unique letter and seriously consider a double. LL, EE, OO and SS are the usual suspects, and they end more streaks than any other trap in the game.
What Hard Mode Changes
Hard Mode adds a single rule: every hint you have revealed must appear in your next guess. Greens stay put and yellows must be reused somewhere in the word. It sounds helpful, but it can trap you in word families — with _IGHT on the board, LIGHT, MIGHT, FIGHT, NIGHT, RIGHT, SIGHT and TIGHT all fit, and you may be forced to burn guesses one by one. In normal mode you can escape with a diagnostic “sacrifice guess” that tests several different letters at once; Hard Mode takes that tool away. Switch it on only when you want the extra jeopardy.
Seven Beginner Mistakes to Avoid
- Trying to solve on row one. Your opener should gather information, not chase a hunch — play the odds, not a favourite word.
- Repeating grey letters. A grey letter is dead; typing it again wastes a guess, unless you are deliberately testing a double.
- Putting a yellow back in the same spot. Yellows must move — same position, same yellow, zero new information.
- Opening with a repeated letter. Five unique letters test five letters; a double tests only four.
- Forgetting doubles exist. When four letters are locked in and nothing fits, the answer is very often a repeat.
- Rushing when several words fit. Pause, list the options, and consider a diagnostic guess that tells them apart.
- Sharing the written answer instead of the colour grid. The share button copies an emoji grid that hides the word — paste the word itself and you will spoil someone’s morning.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Wordle free?
Yes. The daily puzzle on the New York Times website is free to play: one word per day, with your streaks and statistics saved in your browser at no cost.
Can answers repeat a letter?
Yes. Around one in six answers contains a repeated letter, so never rule out doubles just because they feel unusual. A repeated letter is confirmed the same way as any other — with green and yellow tiles.
Does gray always mean absent?
Almost always — with one exception. If your guess contains a letter twice and the answer contains it once, the spare copy turns grey while the letter itself is present. That grey means ‘no additional copy’, not ‘absent’.
When does the next Wordle appear?
A new puzzle appears at midnight in your own local time zone, and everyone in the world gets the same word for that calendar day.
Ready to play? Put it into practice with today’s Wordle hints, or look back at past Wordle answers to see how the game has gone lately.