Cracking Wordle

I'll be honest, Wordle is fascinating. It's not only taken the world by storm quite suddenly, but it's actually really good. If you try and tweak the game at all, it doesn't really get any better: the gameplay is really nicely balanced while being simple and relatable.

So I wanted to create a tool to crack Wordle. I don't consider this cheating: it's just how my head works and it's just doing the work for me 😜 On that point though: I'm not advocate of tools or hints that use Wordle answer data to help you. Basically, it's possible to look at the future Wordle answers by looking at the back end code. Some websites have given hints and tips based on what they know the answers will be in the future. If that's what you want, this tool won't help you.

My wordle cracking tools uses raw data and comprehensive algorithm to determine the best possible match, without any knowledge of the future answers, just like most normal users. Here we go:

Strategic notes:

It seems obvious to find what letters occur most in a library of 5 letter words, and use the most popular ones first.
At first this also seems to be a drawback: using the 5 most popular letters means that you're not going to narrow down the results as much as using less popular letters.
However, in practise this does not seem to be the case. If you use the 5 most popular letters, and 2 are right, 3 are wrong, that often seems to reduce the results from 16,000 words to about 700 words:
As an example using "arose" as our word, if any 2 letters are right, and we exclude the other 3, we get the following results:
"ar" results in 786 words. "ao" results in 589 words. "as" results in 1081 words. "ae" results in 971 words. "ro" results in 396 words. "rs" results in 262 words. "re" results in 779 words. "os" results in 692 words. "oe" results in 581 words. "se" results in 918 words.
It also seems ideal to use a different strategy for each round

Round 1:

When we begin, we've got very little data to work on. The only thing we know is that the word is 5 letters.
Initially we have two objectives: it's helpful to target vowels early on, but also useful to target the most commonly occuring consonants.
So we can at least filter out every word in our database and only include the 5 letter ones. This results in about 16,000 words.
The algorithm then scores the words in the list in a number of ways. First we count how often each of the 26 letters occur in the entire database. More frequently occuring letters get a higher score.
We score the word initially by looking at the total score for letters within a word. However we then need to take into account duplicate letter so we halve the score for each set of duplicates.
We then have a list of all 5 letter words in our database, ordered by score.
This results in the word "arose" being top of the list, so let's start with that.

Round 2:

Now for round 2, it depends a little on the results from the previous round.
If the first word gives us two or more "green" letters, I would put in the results as they are into the tool below, because knowing 2 letters in the right place is a huge jump start.
HOWEVER, the chances of getting 2 green letters in the first word are approximately 1:160 - not hugely like to happen although possible.
On the other hand, using a word like "arose" checks out the most popular letters, so it's likely you will have some letters right but not in the right place.
We could use those letters and try and find words that check out, but as a general rule, you'll be lucky to have less then 5000 matching words after filtering results from your first round. I think we need more data before we do anything else.
So let's put all the letters of "arose" into the "excluded" field below. We have data on all of these letters but we have 21 more letters to check so let's get some more data.
After updating results with the removal of the letters "a r o s e" you'll find the next most popular word is "unity". The scoring system will recalculate it's scores based on the filtered results, so words will be freshly scored and sorted.
5 new letters to get some data on! Let's enter those and see what results we get now.

Round 3:

So now we have some data on 10 of the most popular letters in 5 letter words. Data on 40% of our 26 letters is proportionately more useful and accurate then data on 20% of our letters
Let's update the fields below with our data now. Let's add green letters where we know where they are, yellow letters in the included and grey letters in the excluded column
Hopefully now you've got a lot less results to choose from. Generally you'll probably end up with 20-100 possible word matches now.
Now at this point there are a couple of nuances that the algorithm won't take into account. One thing we know is that Wordle uses words that in normal use in the English language. A lot of words we include in our database are "possible" and "valid" matches, but they are unlikely because they are so little known.
If you flick through the list of your results below, you'll see what I mean: a fair few of the words are probably ones that you didn't even know existed.
So take a look through the list: do any words jump out at you as being popular or commonly used words? If so, give it a whirl, girl!
Again, the scoring system will have freshly calculated scores and sorted the words in order of highest score to lowest. However as I say, the algorithm doesn't yet account for word popularity and frequency of use.

Round 4:

I'll be honest, you had good chances of guessing the right word in round 3: but still only about 1:20 chance so don't feel bad if you haven't got it yet.
However after entering in results from all 3 previous rounds, you probably have about a 90% chance of getting the word this time. Make 100% sure you've entered all the letters in the correct place, update the form and then check out the top word matches again.
Anything stand out? One word you know amongst several words that you don't know? You've probably found out the answer 😉
Enter your best choice and see if you're right!

Round 5:

Ooh risky stuff! If you still haven't got the word by round 5 and it's not obvious, we'll have to change the strategy for this round.
Right now, you have 2 chances left. This is deep water. Right now, it's not about finesse or getting a nice score, it's about staying alive, playing dirty, anything just to make 100% sure you win this game.
With that in mind, this is how we're going to do it: we'll try and use up as many unknown letters in Round 5 as possible. So any green letters you have - keep them out. We know what and where they are: we have all the possible data about them. So there's nothing more to find out, leave them out.
So for Round 5, enter all the letters you've used so far into the excluded box, clear all the other boxes. You'll likely get zero results. If you do get a valid result, play this word for the round.
If you don't get a valid result, start by removing some yellow letters from the excluded box, one at a time. As soon as you get a valid result, play this word.
This is a way to get some data on as many letters as posisble that you haven't yet used. This is the best way to identify the correct word in the last go.

Round 6:

Right, now then. Update the form completely with all the data so far, double check it to make sure it's all correct.
It's unlikely you'll have more then 5 words that match now, most likely you'll have 1 or 2.
Again, let's think about frequently used words, common words that are well known in the English language.
Choose wisely, this is your last go!

I won!

Boom! Boom Boom Boom! This is what I created this tool for.
Actually I didn't really. But give me a like or buy me a coffee?
Link here...

I lost...

Even data couldn't save you 🙁
I'm sorry. I've tried my best. But maybe something went wrong on my side. Maybe my database wasn't complete. Maybe I made a mistake somewhere.
So if you think there's anything I could do to improve this, you've got a couple of options:
Submit a missing word that you think I don't have
Or contact me with some general feedback here

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Included letters

Excluded letters

Included letters in the right place

Included letters in the wrong place

Recommended next words, ordered from most likely to least likely:

Contents

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Create custom wordle game

Strategy tips

Crack a wordle answer