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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Wordle colors describe individual letter copies, not just whether a distinct letter is “right” or “wrong.” Green means that copy is in the answer and in the correct position; yellow means it is in the answer but in a different position; gray means that copy is not being counted as another match. That last distinction matters when a guess repeats a letter: one copy can be green or yellow while an extra copy is gray.
What Wordle’s green, yellow, and gray tiles mean
- Green: The guessed letter is in the answer and occupies that exact position.
- Yellow: The guessed letter is in the answer, but that copy is in the wrong position. It cannot remain in that same slot in a later guess.
- Gray: That guessed copy is not counted as a match. When the letter appears only once in the guess, gray ordinarily indicates that it is absent from the answer. With repeated letters, it may instead be an extra copy.
These are occurrence-by-occurrence clues. A tile’s color does not assign one simple status to every instance of that letter in the row.
Why one repeated letter can be gray while another is colored
Wordle cannot award more matching copies of a letter than the answer contains. If your guess uses a letter more times than the answer does, the extra guessed copy is not counted as a match.
One copy is in the correct position
Suppose the answer contains one R and your guess contains two. If one R is in the answer’s R position, that tile is green. The other R is gray because it is an additional copy the answer does not contain.
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Neither copy is in the correct position
If both guessed Rs are in the wrong places, only one can be yellow when the answer has one R. The other is gray. The yellow confirms that an R belongs somewhere in the answer, but not in the yellow tile’s position.
The official Wordle party-game instructions describe this same duplicate-letter rule. They also caution: “Just because a letter is green or yellow doesn’t mean it won’t appear again.” That means a colored copy confirms at least one occurrence, but does not by itself establish the answer’s full letter count.
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How to read a row with duplicate letters
- Fix the greens. Keep each green letter in its revealed position.
- Record the yellows. The letter is present, but the yellow position is ruled out for that copy.
- Check repeated letters as a group. If a row has both a colored and gray copy of the same letter, do not conclude that the letter is absent. The gray copy may be extra.
- Track counts cautiously. Colored copies establish that at least that many copies are in the answer. A gray duplicate can indicate that the guess included too many, but the row’s colored copies still count.
For example, a green R and gray R show that at least one R is present and that the second guessed R was not matched. They do not mean “no R.” By contrast, a single gray R with no colored R elsewhere in that guess is evidence that R is absent.
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In ordinary mode, Wordle does not require every guess to preserve all known clues; an exploratory guess can test new letters. Hard Mode requires subsequent guesses to use revealed information. In either mode, interpreting duplicate tiles correctly helps you avoid discarding a confirmed letter just because another copy is gray. TechRadar’s current Wordle guide explains the color meanings and this mode distinction: TechRadar’s Wordle guide.
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