Wordle opening analysis
Wordle Starting Word Analyzer
See how one five-letter opener divides the current candidate set. Compare its information gain, group sizes, letter coverage, vowels, and repeated letters.
Analysis preview
See how your opener splits the field
Analyze CRANE or replace it with another verified word. You will see information gain, remaining-group sizes, letter shape, and a transparent benchmark comparison.
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How to choose an opener
Read the split, not a mystery rating
Start with information gain
Entropy measures how evenly a guess divides every possible green, yellow, and gray response. More bits generally mean the first response removes more uncertainty.
Check the remaining groups
Expected remaining estimates the average group after one response. Worst-case group shows the largest difficult branch, while feedback groups counts the distinct responses produced.
Inspect the five letters
Distinct letters test broader ground. Vowel and consonant counts describe the word’s shape; repeated-letter warnings make the coverage tradeoff explicit.
Use the benchmark carefully
TARES is a reproducible reference from this exact CORE dataset. Compare named metrics instead of treating it as an official or universal best answer.
Calculation boundary
Exact Wordle-style feedback, verified candidates
Each submitted word is checked against every CORE candidate using the same duplicate-safe green-first feedback logic as the Wordle Solver. The analyzer reports entropy in bits, average and worst remaining-group sizes, nonempty feedback groups, and letter-presence coverage from the pinned data.
CORE is the narrower default coverage tier, not an official Wordle answer corpus or a precise popularity score. Read the methodology or explore the five-letter statistics for the calculation boundary.
FAQ
Starting-word questions
What makes a strong Wordle starting word?
A useful opener separates the remaining candidates into many small feedback groups. Information gain, expected remaining words, the worst-case group, distinct letters, and vowel balance describe different parts of that job; this analyzer does not hide them inside one mystery score.
Are repeated letters always bad in a first guess?
No. A repeated letter tests fewer distinct letters, so it usually covers less of the opening field. Repeats can still be valuable later when the remaining candidates are likely to contain multiple copies.
What does letter coverage mean?
Letter coverage is the average presence rate of the word’s distinct letters across the current CORE candidates. It measures letter exposure, while entropy measures the complete green, yellow, and gray feedback split.
Why is TARES used as the comparison?
TARES ranked first in the repository’s reproducible full-CORE benchmark under the published tie-break order. It is a dataset reference, not a claim that one word is universally best for every Wordle list or strategy.
Is this based on the official Wordle answer list?
No. The analysis uses the site’s verified five-letter CORE data as a transparent lexical candidate set. It is not presented as an official answer or accepted-guess list.