Wordle is a daily word puzzle: one five-letter word, six guesses, and a fresh puzzle every day at midnight. It looks simple, and the rules genuinely are. What makes it stick is that "simple" hides a surprising amount of deduction — which is exactly why we love it, and why we build games in the same family.
This guide covers everything a first-time player needs: the rules, what the colored tiles mean, and a full walkthrough of a real game so you can see the logic in motion. We build daily word games for a living, so we'll also point out the small habits that separate a lucky solve from a reliable one.
The rules in 30 seconds
- You have six guesses to find one five-letter word.
- Every guess must be a real five-letter word (Wordle won't accept random letters).
- After each guess, every tile turns one of three colors. Those colors are your only feedback.
- Everyone in the world gets the same word on the same day. That's why people share scores.
That's the whole game. The skill is in reading the colors.
What the tile colors mean
This is the only thing you must understand, so let's be precise.
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 🟩 Green | Right letter, right position. It's locked. |
| 🟨 Yellow | Right letter, wrong position. The letter is in the word — just somewhere else. |
| ⬛ Gray | The letter is not in the word at all (with one exception below). |
The exception that trips up new players: duplicate letters. Say the answer is ROBOT and you guess OZONE. The first O (position 1) isn't where an O goes, but O is in the word, so it shows yellow. The second O (position 3) lands exactly where ROBOT's middle O sits, so it shows green. If a word has only one of a letter and you guess two, the "extra" copy comes back gray — Wordle is telling you "there's only one of these."
A full walkthrough
Let's play one game the way we'd actually play it. The answer (you don't know this yet) is CRANE.
Guess 1 — SLATE. We open with a word packed with common letters and no repeats. Result:
S⬛ ·L⬛ ·A🟨 ·T⬛ ·E🟩
We learned a lot: there's an A (not in slot 3), an E locked in slot 5, and S, L, T are all out. Three letters eliminated in one move is a great start.
Guess 2 — BRACE. We keep the locked E at the end, move the A somewhere new, and test three brand-new letters (B, R, C). Result:
B⬛ ·R🟨 ·A🟩 ·C🟨 ·E🟩
Now it's clicking. A is locked in slot 3, E in slot 5. R and C are both in the word but not where we put them. B is out.
Guess 3 — CRANE. We know the word contains C, R, A, E, with A in slot 3 and E in slot 5. C can't be slot 4 (it was yellow there), so it likely starts the word; R can't be slot 2 (yellow there), so it probably sits in slot 2... let's reason: C _ A _ E with an R and one more letter. CRANE fits perfectly.
C🟩 ·R🟩 ·A🟩 ·N🟩 ·E🟩
Solved in three. Notice we never guessed randomly — every move used the previous colors to shrink the possibilities.
The one habit that matters most
Beginners try to win on every guess. Strong players try to learn on the early guesses and win on the later ones. Your first guess especially should be about gathering information: pick a real word with five different common letters and no repeats, so a single guess can rule in or rule out as much as possible.
If you want the specifics — which opening words give you the most information and why — we wrote a companion piece on the best Wordle starting words. And if you like having the raw material handy, our list of the most common 5-letter words is a useful cheat sheet for when you're stuck on the last guess.
Common beginner mistakes
- Reusing gray letters. If a letter came back gray, it's gone — don't put it in another guess. You'd be wasting a slot.
- Ignoring yellow positions. Yellow doesn't just say "this letter is in the word"; it also says "not here." Move it.
- Forgetting locked greens. Once a tile is green, keep it in that exact spot for every future guess.
- Burning a guess on a word you already know is wrong. Every guess should be consistent with all the color feedback so far.
Why we're fans
Wordle proved something we believe deeply: a daily puzzle with dead-simple rules and real deduction underneath can become a habit millions of people genuinely look forward to. That's the same itch our own games scratch. If you enjoy the deduction in Wordle, you'll probably like Pairdle — it keeps the daily-word format but you place letters two at a time, which changes the logic in a fun way. And if word-guessing games in general are your thing, our roundup of the best daily word games has more to try.
Wordle takes two minutes to learn and a long time to master. Now you know the rules — go read those colors.