3 ms·

I know everyone has their "Starting Word" by this point, but this graphic seems very good at discovering good starting words. "SLATE" seems to have a huge numb

I know everyone has their "Starting Word" by this point, but this graphic seems very good at discovering good starting words. "SLATE" seems to have a huge number of solutions on each letter: 300+ words available on S----, 400+ words available on ----E. The smallest is -L----, which has 200 words, still a good size all else considered. I'm not too sure on how to evaluate the "best starting word", but maybe I'll try "SLATE" next time I play Wordle. EDIT: Some people are interested in "two starting words". Seems like "ROBIN" hits a lot of words that SLATE misses. -O--- in the 2nd letter was the most common letter+position after the letters S L A T and E were banned. "CHILD" also seems like another good followup word after SLATE.

Hnrobert42 4y ago
From this I concluded the best starting word is FEAST. Each column has a high likelihood of being correct. And damn if I didn’t get today’s Wordle on the second guess with this strategy. Anecdotal data FTW!
- ghaff 4y ago
  Wordlebot likes SLATE and LEAST a bit better. But, yeah, mix of common consonants and vowels. I also think I've found that mixing things up because your usual word did really well the day before doesn't really seem to be a good strategy because if the solution is a lot different, just eliminating some of the most common letters is still pretty effective.
  - madcaptenor 4y ago
    Is there some tendency for a starting word that does well one day to do poorly the next day? I know Original Wordle was randomized so there wouldn't be, but now that there's editing there might be.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      I don't know. I'll sometimes mix things up a bit if, say, I get 4 letters out of SLATE on a day. (I sometimes will use CRANE which is still very high on the starting words list.) At the same time though, even if SLATE were to come up empty the next day, that's a lot of negative information.
crazydoggers 4y ago
Some MIT researchers actually had found that SALET performed 1% better as a starting word. [1] However NYT recently updated the permissible word list, and TARSE is currently the statistically best starting word. 1. https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/how-algorithm-solves-wordle https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/how-algorithm-...
layer8 4y ago
If you want to cover the ten most frequent solution letters with the first two words, here is some inspiration: https://new.wordsmith.org/anagram/anagram.cgi?anagram=eraotlisnc&language=english&d=2&n=5&m=5&a=n&l=n&q=n&k=0 https://new.wordsmith.org/anagram/anagram.cgi?anagram=eraotl...
macintux 4y ago
I’ve been picking different starting words each day, and Wordlebot is very polite when it tells me I’m being an idiot. “THROW is a decent opening word, and a distinctive one!”
ggop 4y ago
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/upshot/wordle-bot.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/upshot/wordle-bot.h... suggests SLATE as well. This is a bot that analyses your game and suggests possible answers at each step.

Hnrobert42 4y ago

From this I concluded the best starting word is FEAST. Each column has a high likelihood of being correct. And damn if I didn’t get today’s Wordle on the second guess with this strategy. Anecdotal data FTW!

ghaff 4y ago
Wordlebot likes SLATE and LEAST a bit better. But, yeah, mix of common consonants and vowels. I also think I've found that mixing things up because your usual word did really well the day before doesn't really seem to be a good strategy because if the solution is a lot different, just eliminating some of the most common letters is still pretty effective.
- madcaptenor 4y ago
  Is there some tendency for a starting word that does well one day to do poorly the next day? I know Original Wordle was randomized so there wouldn't be, but now that there's editing there might be.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    I don't know. I'll sometimes mix things up a bit if, say, I get 4 letters out of SLATE on a day. (I sometimes will use CRANE which is still very high on the starting words list.) At the same time though, even if SLATE were to come up empty the next day, that's a lot of negative information.

crazydoggers 4y ago

Some MIT researchers actually had found that SALET performed 1% better as a starting word. [1] However NYT recently updated the permissible word list, and TARSE is currently the statistically best starting word. 1. https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/how-algorithm-solves-wordle https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/how-algorithm-...

layer8 4y ago

If you want to cover the ten most frequent solution letters with the first two words, here is some inspiration: https://new.wordsmith.org/anagram/anagram.cgi?anagram=eraotlisnc&language=english&d=2&n=5&m=5&a=n&l=n&q=n&k=0 https://new.wordsmith.org/anagram/anagram.cgi?anagram=eraotl...

macintux 4y ago

I’ve been picking different starting words each day, and Wordlebot is very polite when it tells me I’m being an idiot. “THROW is a decent opening word, and a distinctive one!”

ggop 4y ago

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/upshot/wordle-bot.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/upshot/wordle-bot.h... suggests SLATE as well. This is a bot that analyses your game and suggests possible answers at each step.