How to play Wordle—hacks to help you improve in this tricky word game

Wordle is the new word game that everyone seems to be totally obsessed with at the moment, but how can you get involved in this new challenge?

As the new year begins, a lot of us try a new activity and have a go at some of the best hobbies for women. But a lot involve spending money. 

But there are free hobbies that you can try and if you don't fancy having a go at Tom Daley's adorable knitting hobby, or boxing for women, perhaps this free word puzzle game—that's a bit of an internet craze at the moment—might be for you!

Wordle is a new daily word game that is free to play online and has captured the attention of many people across the globe. The simple game is a bit like a crossword, or words with friends but instead, it's just a one-word game that changes every 24 hours. 

Each day a new word must be discovered by players who make educated guesses about the word until they solve the challenge. But how can you get involved and are there any tricks to stay ahead of the game?

How to play Wordle

The Wordle site explains the rules concisely and informs players that they have just six attempts to guess what the five-letter word of the day will be.

In order to make a guess, the player must submit a valid five-letter word. Once they have suggested a word and pressed submit, the player will then discover which of the letters in the word are correct.

The tiles of the color will change from grey to either yellow or green if you are getting close. If the tile is green, the letter is in the correct spot. If the tile is yellow, the letter does appear in the word, but it is not in the correct space. If the tile stays grey, the letter does not appear in the word in any location.

How to get better at Wordle

A lot of players have their own tips and tricks and even some celebrity players have shared their tactics for success online.

Author Richard Osman told Claudia Winkleman on BBC Radio 2 that there are some easy ways to improve your chances.

"The way it works is, there’s a list of 2,500 words which could be the Wordle on any given day," said Richard. "They’re the 2,500 most common five-letter words in the English language, so there will never be a word that’s crazy, like we haven’t heard of."

"I often start with the word ‘aline’ which is not a word it would ever be, because it’s too obscure, but it’s got three vowels in it and an L and an N, which is quite useful as well, it’s got an E in a very good place."

"You can take advantage of these 10,000 words but know that the actual word will be one that you’ve heard of."

Richard also suggested that the word 'audio' is another great word to start with as it has a lot of vowels that can help structure the rest of the word.

Countdown master and lexicographer, Susie Dent, revealed some of her best tips for success when playing Wordle on BBC Breakfast.

"If you want to go for letter frequency, then the letter E is the most frequent and you can go for your As and your Rs and I and O and M, but to be honest I think the beauty of it is just free-falling and then just trying to analyse it and work it out from there." Susie concluded, "So I would say, make the first one a complete guess."