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Under a simple scoring rule that adds up how often each letter appears in a historical list of Wordle answers, ROATE and ORATE tie for first. AROSE and SOARE follow, then IRATE and STARE. That makes them leaders only for letter-frequency coverage—not proven winners, guaranteed openers, or the best choices under every strategy.
What does “best Wordle starting word” mean here?
Michael Brooks’s October 2026 analysis counted the letters in 2,315 past Wordle answers, then scored each five-letter candidate without repeated letters by adding the historical counts for its letters. The list contains 11,575 letter slots in total (2,315 answers × five letters). In that dataset, E appears 1,233 times.
That method rewards a guess for containing letters that occur often across the answer list. Its score is a sum of letter counts—not a probability, win rate, expected number of guesses, or measurement of how much information a guess provides. The published values are Brooks’s calculations over the stated corpus; they have not been independently replicated here.
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Leaders by summed letter frequency
| Starting word | Frequency points | What the score means |
|---|---|---|
| ROATE or ORATE | 4,594 | Sum of the historical counts for the word’s letters |
| AROSE or SOARE | 4,534 | Sum of the historical counts for the word’s letters |
| IRATE | 4,511 | Sum of the historical counts for the word’s letters |
| STARE | 4,509 | Sum of the historical counts for the word’s letters |
STARE is 85 frequency points below the top score in Brooks’s ranking. Those points are not an 85-point difference in odds or game performance.
#1 Best Overall
Is the best opener ADIEU, AUDIO, STARE, or CRANE?
It depends on what you mean by “best.” For the specific frequency-sum rule above, ROATE and ORATE lead. ADIEU and AUDIO may appeal if your aim is to test several vowels early, while STARE and CRANE are familiar mixes of vowels and consonants; this analysis does not establish their comparative solve rates. It also does not rank repeated-letter candidates, since those were excluded from its scoring.
Frequency alone misses two important things: where a letter sits in an answer and how a guess divides the remaining possible answers according to the green, yellow, and gray feedback. A common letter can be useful to include, but a guess with a slightly lower raw count can produce more revealing feedback patterns.
Rank #2
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Why other analyses name different “best” words
Wordle openers can be evaluated by different objectives. One method adds letter frequencies; another can maximize the variety of feedback patterns, often described using Shannon entropy; a solver can instead compare expected turns under a particular model and follow-up strategy. These are different questions, so their leaderboards need not agree.
Richard J. Rusin’s mathematical comparison illustrates the effect of strategy: under his original-list, guess-at-will analysis, SLATE averaged 3.8218 turns, while the two-word opening CRANE + SPILT averaged 3.7005. The latter is a planned two-guess opener, not a like-for-like single-word comparison. Rusin notes, “Of course it depends on what you wish to optimize and how you will continue play after the starting word, to try to optimize it.”
Rank #3
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The Word Bee offers another methodological contrast: its analysis describes maximizing Shannon entropy over feedback patterns in its stated answer corpus. That is not the same as summing letter counts, and its stated allowed-guess dataset differs from other reported versions. Its results should not be treated as independently verified here or as an official New York Times ranking.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How historical is the 2,315-answer list?
The 2,315-word corpus is described as Wordle’s original answer list. It is useful for analyzing that historical set, but it should not be read as a verified snapshot of the current answer pool or a description of current New York Times selection behavior. Rusin says that since November 2022, a Times curator has selected daily answers; his model assumes uniform random selection from the historical list and perfect recall of its solutions.
Rank #4
A third-party starter-word tool reviewed on September 8, 2026, also warns that scores can change when the answer list changes. A ranking therefore depends on the list version as well as the scoring method. The current full NYT answer list and its current selection process are not established by these sources.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- PLAY WORDLE IN REAL LIFE WITH FRIENDS: Inspired by the popular digital version, Wordle: The Party Game features the same gameplay fans love, but players compete in real life to solve the Wordle
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- 4 WAYS TO WORDLE: Try the classic play or 3 variations. In fast mode, players race to solve the Wordle first. In timed mode, beat the clock—or receive more points. Or compete in groups with team mode
- FRIENDS & FAMILY GAME NIGHT: Break out this fun game for evenings with friends or family game nights. For ages 14 and up, it’s a great gift for adults, teens, Wordle fans, and word puzzle lovers
A practical way to use the frequency ranking
- Choose your objective. If you want to follow this particular historical frequency calculation, try ROATE or ORATE; AROSE, SOARE, IRATE, and STARE are close alternatives by its scoring rule.
- Read the feedback, not just the letters. Use the first guess to update which letters and positions remain possible. The frequency score does not tell you which answer is most likely after a particular pattern of feedback.
- Consider a complementary second guess when the first reveals little. Brooks suggests testing additional consonants such as L, N, S, C, H, D, or P, and I or U if another vowel is needed. This is a heuristic suggestion, not a tested or guaranteed strategy; choose letters based on the feedback you actually received.
What to check before comparing starter-word rankings
- Scoring objective: raw letter coverage, feedback-pattern information, or expected turns.
- Allowed guesses: whether a guess must itself be a possible answer.
- Opening plan: one starter word or a planned sequence of guesses.
- Follow-up assumptions: what the player does with feedback and which difficulty mode the analysis assumes.
- Answer-list version: rankings can shift when the corpus changes.
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