A tool for picking words and winning at Wordle

Topic: 

You've seen Wordle, the game sweeping the web. I built a tool to examine all the choices and pick the best starting word, and then help you pick your 2nd word after you get the result.

Starting word ORATE

My recommended starting word is ORATE. Those are the 5 most common letters in solutions to Wordle. Once you enter it, you may get back some blue or yellow letters. Depending on what you get, the table below shows you the answer, and then a suitable word to try after that answer. After the word it lists the most popular letters in the remaining possible winners, given the answer you got. However, it excludes the letters of ORATE, presuming you are trying to learn about the next 5 most likely letters, and then you will refine your guesses. That means you will almost never get it in two tries. (Another strategy would be to try to re-use the yellow letters in different positions. You know they are there somewhere and want to know where. This gives you more information about them, at the cost of learning what the other letters in the word are.)

Once it knows the letters, it looks for a word that contains the 5 most popular. If it can't find that, it will look among a larger set. You can use this word for your entry.

The program will pick very good words. It doesn't yet account for position -- ie. it doesn't consider that the "L" might be most commonly seen in position 2 and thus seek a word with L in position 2. Later I might improve it to look for those.

It only covers when you get up to two "hits" from ORATE. If you get 3, you should have more than enough to go on from that on your own. The program is not trying to play the game for you. When you go for your 3rd word, you can use the letter popularity table to make a word from the remaining letters that were not in your 2nd word, or you can follow your own strategy.

The table

You getTry thisLetter Popularity or Words
O
R
A
T
E
OFFAL
O
R
A
T
E
PUDICOUTDO, OUGHT, OUTGO, OPTIC
O
R
A
T
E
VINYLOXIDE, OLIVE, OZONE, OBESE, OPINE, OUNCE, OVINE
O
R
A
T
E
OLDEN
O
R
A
T
E
WINDYOPIUM, ONION, OVOID, ODDLY, OWING
O
R
A
T
E
PUDICNPWCDGLSBIFKM
O
R
A
T
E
CLIMBLNMCBYVPFSDGZ
O
R
A
T
E
DUCHYNYUDHCIMSWGLF
O
R
A
T
E
PSYCHCHAOS, COACH, PIANO, KOALA, FOAMY, SOAPY, LOAMY
O
R
A
T
E
ULMINLNMCVDGSIYWHB
O
R
A
T
E
LUSHYHUSYLNMPBIGDF
O
R
A
T
E
INCUSSIUNCHPMLDGBJ
O
R
A
T
E
CLIPSSLCPGNHVUMIBK
O
R
A
T
E
VINYLNLYMVWDCBHPGK
O
R
A
T
E
LYSINLNSYCDBIGUPWH
O
R
A
T
E
BINDSNDSCBGWKILPFH
O
R
A
T
E
UNIFYBRIAR, FRIAR, URBAN, ARRAY
O
R
A
T
E
FISHYFRITZ, TRUTH
O
R
A
T
E
INCUSUSICNYKPFGDLB
O
R
A
T
E
PUDICIPDCUBMNGZV
O
R
A
T
E
SCUDIDCISFGPUBLNKY
O
R
A
T
E
CLUNKILCKUNGDYBSPM
O
R
A
T
E
WHIDSSHDCFWLMKIYUP
O
R
A
T
E
CHILDIYCHDLUPMSNBG
O
R
A
T
E
HUMIDGIRTH, RUSTY, BIRTH, DIRTY, MIRTH
O
R
A
T
E
BLUSHISUHBLFPDGWMK
O
R
A
T
E
SUINGSUVIGPNCHMFDW
O
R
A
T
E
LYSINILUNSYPDFCVMW
O
R
A
T
E
SULCIUISYLCHBPGKDM
O
R
A
T
E
SWATH
O
R
A
T
E
SLINKSNLHIPKDFCGWB
O
R
A
T
E
CHIVSSLHVPCGDKNMBU
O
R
A
T
E
HYLICHLYCMBDPKVIFS
O
R
A
T
E
SLICKSLCKHNMPIFWGU
O
R
A
T
E
SPICYYSINCPUFLHBZV
O
R
A
T
E
LUNCHNIUCLHYSDBPFG
O
R
A
T
E
GLIMSLSGMVIUPCNBDF
O
R
A
T
E
BLINDLNDPCBGSMYKHV
O
R
A
T
E
LYSINLYNISMDPCGBUV
O
R
A
T
E
HILUSIUSLHBFNCWPQM
O
R
A
T
E
FISHYYPHFDSIZLMJN
O
R
A
T
E
FISHYIYUSHFNLDMBXW
O
R
A
T
E
SHULNILHUNSCWMDYP
O
R
A
T
E
UNLIDSILUDNPCFHBWV
O
R
A
T
E
SHULNIHUSNLGCPFMKD
O
R
A
T
E
SLUNGIUNLSGCDMPBHF
O
R
A
T
E
LINDSLNISDHPBYCGWU
O
R
A
T
E
LYSINIULYSNCHPMKFD

Comments

I've another suggestion.
Include these 2 words in 1st 2 attempts, identify all the vowels and Y (possible replacement of vowel). Once the vowels and any of the remaining 5 characters are identified, gets easier.

MARIO
CLUES/BUYER

https://twitter.com/maddyb65/status/1482934849136562184?

They are calculated based on letter frequency. Sometimes the other vowels (IUY) are quite infrequent in resulting words, and it may be better to find the other consonants. Often they make it in because you need some vowels for your guess word.

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