Wordle tips: How to master the game, according to a linguistics expert

It’s the game that social media can’t get enough of, but we can’t help but wonder: should you really start Wordle with the same word every day?
Laura Hampson finds out
5 days ago

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What are the best starting words for Wordle?
Some users swear by starting each game with the same word. Usually vowel-heavy, some popular starting words include ‘ADIEU’, ‘STEAK’, ‘TREAD’, ‘TABLE’ and ‘AUDIO’.

But is this really the best tactic? Murphy, a Wordle fan who plays the game daily in three different languages, says she varies the words she starts with – but they are always consonant-heavy.

“Consonants are more informative than vowels – there are more of them to knock out of contention,” she explains. “Things like ‘CLAMP’ or ‘DRINK’, which have either an ‘L’ or an ‘R’ and either an ‘M’ or an ‘N’.

“Whereas if you guess something vowel-heavy like ‘ALIEN’ at the start, you might learn that the word has an ‘A’ and an ‘E’, but a lot of words have those two vowels – you haven’t ruled as many words out.

Consonants are more informative than vowels
“I like using ‘L’, ‘R’, ‘N’, and ‘M’ (linguists call them sonorant consonants) early because they combine easily with other consonants. Once I know that a word with a ‘P’ doesn’t have an ‘L’, for instance, I’ve ruled out a lot of the possible ‘P’ words.”

More........
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/wordle-starting-word-hints-win-b2024307.html