How do I get a Wordle hint without seeing the answer?

Feed the tiles you already have into the solver. Set each letter grey, yellow or green exactly as your board shows, and it lists only the words still possible, everyday answers first. You decide how much to read, so you get a nudge rather than the answer handed to you.

What is the best Wordle starting word?

Openers that spend common letters in common positions do the most work. SLATE, CRANE, TRACE, CRATE and SLANT are all strong, and vowel-heavy ADIEU or AUDIO help when you want to find vowels fast. Any one of them is a fine habit; consistency matters more than the exact choice.

Does using a hint count as cheating?

That is up to you. A lot of players use a nudge on the last guess to keep a streak, or to learn stronger openers over time. The solver is built to reveal as little or as much as you want.

Solver/Wordle hints

Wordle hints, without the spoiler

The quickest hint is the one you control. Type the guesses you already have into the solver, set each tile to the colour on your board, and the list narrows to only the words that still fit — everyday answers first. Read one line or ten; the nudge is as small as you want it.

Open the solver→

A gentle, spoiler-free hint in three steps

1. Play your usual opener. Enter it in the solver and colour the tiles the way the game did — grey for absent, yellow for present but misplaced, green for exactly right.

2. Read only the top of the list. Results are ranked so the ordinary, likely answers sit first. Glancing at the first row or two is usually all the push you need.

3. Ask for the best next guess. The solver can suggest the word that narrows the field the most — sometimes a word that cannot be the answer but tells you the most about it. That is a hint about strategy, not the answer itself.

Best Wordle starting words

A good opener spends common letters in the places they usually sit, so more of the board lights up on turn one. Any of these make a reliable habit — pick one and stick with it:

SLATE — five very common letters CRANE — a classic all-rounder TRACE — same letters, fresh order CRATE — swaps the T and C SLANT — no E, good for variety ADIEU — four vowels in one go

Vowel-first openers like ADIEU or AUDIO are handy when you would rather pin down the vowels early and fill the consonants afterwards.

Turn what you know into a shortlist

Already part-way through? The solver takes everything at once: the pattern of greens, the yellows that are present but misplaced, and every grey you have ruled out — including the awkward repeated-letter cases most tools get wrong. It reproduces the game's own colouring rule exactly, so a word is never wrongly kept or wrongly dropped.

You can also start from a plain list and let the solver narrow it: browse word lists from three to eleven letters, or jump to popular cuts like five-letter words starting with S or five-letter words ending in Y.

Frequently asked

How do I get a hint without seeing the answer?

Feed the tiles you already have into the solver and read only as far down the list as you like. It shows what is still possible, not a single answer, so you stay in control of the spoiler.

What is the best starting word?

SLATE, CRANE, TRACE, CRATE and SLANT are all strong; ADIEU and AUDIO help you hunt vowels. Consistency beats the exact pick — a familiar opener you read well is worth more than a theoretically perfect one.

Why does the suggested guess sometimes look odd?

The best next guess is scored by how much it narrows the remaining words on average, so it occasionally recommends a word that cannot be the answer but rules out the most. That is usually what saves you a turn.