How to Play Wordle: Rules, Colors, and Beginner Tips
Learn the basic Wordle rules, what green, yellow, and gray tiles mean, and how repeated letters affect the feedback.
Wordle asks you to identify a five-letter word in six accepted guesses. After each guess, every tile changes color to describe how that letter relates to the answer.
When you are comfortable with the rules, compare starting-word approaches, read the strategy guide, or use the daily hints page for the current puzzle.
The basic rules
- Enter an accepted five-letter word.
- Read the color feedback for all five positions.
- Use that information in the next guess.
- Solve the word within six attempts.
What the colors mean
- Green: the letter is in the answer and in this exact position.
- Yellow: the letter is in the answer but not in this position.
- Gray: the answer has no unmatched copy of this letter.
That wording for gray matters when a guess repeats a letter. For example, if a guess contains two copies and only one is colored, the answer can contain one copy rather than zero.
Three beginner habits
- Start with five distinct letters so the first row tests broad territory.
- Keep green letters fixed and move yellow letters to positions not yet ruled out.
- Before submitting, check the guess against every previous tile, including repeated-letter counts.
Wordle has a Normal Mode and a Hard Mode. Hard Mode requires you to use revealed green and yellow clues in later guesses, while Normal Mode permits a diagnostic guess that may only be intended to test alternatives.