Best Wordle starting words

A good starting word reveals as many letters as possible. Against all 4,657 common five-letter words in our list, AROSE finds 1.91 letters on average, the most of any word with five different letters.

Quintle · Maintained by Wren Calder (pen name) · automated checks · Data: SCOWL word list (Kevin Atkinson) and WordNet 3.1 (Princeton University) · Updated Oct 19, 2026 · How the checks work

Top 25 starting words by letters found

#	Word	Letters found (green or yellow)	Green letters
1	AROSE	1.91	0.37
2	RAISE	1.89	0.46
3	ARISE	1.89	0.37
4	TARES	1.89	0.86
5	RATES	1.89	0.81
6	TEARS	1.89	0.67
7	TASER	1.89	0.55
8	STARE	1.89	0.43
9	ASTER	1.89	0.37
10	RESAT	1.89	0.32
11	REALS	1.88	0.66
12	EARLS	1.88	0.66
13	LASER	1.88	0.53
14	ALOES	1.86	0.74
15	EARNS	1.84	0.67
16	SANER	1.84	0.65
17	NEARS	1.84	0.62
18	SNARE	1.84	0.43
19	AISLE	1.84	0.37
20	TALES	1.84	0.84
21	TEALS	1.84	0.68
22	SLATE	1.84	0.50
23	STALE	1.84	0.44
24	LEAST	1.84	0.38
25	STEAL	1.84	0.32

Starting words that find the most green letters

Green letters fix a position, so these openers suit players who want a strong second guess.

CARES (0.87 green)
BARES (0.87 green)
CANES (0.87 green)
PARES (0.86 green)
BANES (0.86 green)
TARES (0.86 green)
CORES (0.86 green)
BORES (0.86 green)
BALES (0.85 green)
PANES (0.85 green)

How the ranking is calculated

We take every common five-letter word in our list that has five different letters and play it as a first guess against every common word as the answer. For each pair we count the letters that would turn green (right letter, right spot) and the letters that would turn green or yellow (in the word). The table shows the averages. A repeated letter can only test one letter, so words such as APPLE are left out.

The ranking uses our own word list, not the list of answers used by any particular game. It shows which letters are most useful to test first: the top words all combine common vowels with R, S, T, L or N.

Questions

What is the best Wordle starting word?

By this method, AROSE: on average it finds 1.91 of the answer's letters. RAISE and ARISE are close behind.

How many vowels should a starting word have?

Of the top 25 words, 5 have three vowels and 20 have two. A third vowel finds the vowels faster; a second consonant from R, S, T, L and N finds more green letters.

Is it better to use the same starting word every day?

A fixed opener makes the second guess easier to plan, because you learn what each result pattern means. The numbers above do not change from day to day.