Wordle Dictionary & Terminology
A comprehensive reference of terms, concepts, and vocabulary used in Wordle gameplay, strategy, and analysis. Use this guide to enhance your understanding and mastery of the game.
Gameplay Terminology
Double Letter
When the same letter appears twice in a word (e.g., HELLO has a double L). Identifying potential double letters is a crucial skill in advanced Wordle play.
Green Letter
A correct letter in the correct position, shown as a green square in Wordle. These represent confirmed information about the solution word.
Hard Mode
A gameplay option where players must use all revealed green and yellow letters in subsequent guesses, making the puzzle more challenging.
Opening Word
The first word played in a Wordle game. Strategic opening words like 'SLATE', 'CRANE', or 'AUDIO' are chosen to maximize information gain.
Starter Word
Synonym for opening word; the first word used in a Wordle game, ideally containing common letters to maximize information gain.
Vowel-Heavy Strategy
An approach that prioritizes identifying the vowels in a word first, typically using initial guesses that contain many different vowels (e.g., 'AUDIO').
Yellow Letter
A correct letter in the wrong position, shown as a yellow square in Wordle. These provide partial information about the solution word.
Guess Distribution
A statistical representation of how many guesses players typically need to solve a Wordle puzzle. The game tracks this information for individual players.
Keyboard Feedback
The color-coding of letters on the virtual keyboard in Wordle, helping players track which letters have been used and their status (correct, misplaced, or absent).
Linguistic Terminology
Bigram
A sequence of two adjacent letters in a word. Analyzing common bigrams like 'TH', 'ER', 'ON', and 'IN' can improve Wordle strategy by identifying likely letter combinations.
CVCVC Pattern
A word structure consisting of alternating consonants (C) and vowels (V), such as 'PIANO'. Recognizing these patterns can help narrow down possibilities in Wordle.
Letter Frequency
The statistical occurrence rate of letters in English words. In Wordle, knowing that E, T, A, O, I, N are the most common letters helps form effective guesses.
N-gram
A contiguous sequence of n items (letters) from a text. Analyzing n-grams helps identify common letter patterns in English words for better Wordle play.
Positional Frequency
The likelihood of specific letters appearing in particular positions within a word. For example, 'S' frequently appears at the beginning, while 'E' is common at the end.
Trigram
A sequence of three adjacent letters. Common English trigrams include 'THE', 'AND', 'ING', and recognizing these can improve word identification.
Word Pattern
The specific arrangement of consonants and vowels in a word. Recognizing common patterns helps narrow down possibilities in later guesses.
Zipf's Law
A linguistic principle stating that the frequency of any word is inversely proportional to its rank in the frequency table. This concept helps explain why certain letters and words appear more often than others in English.
Word Frequency
How commonly a word is used in the English language. The Wordle solution set tends to favor more common words over obscure ones.
Technical Terminology
Algorithm
A systematic procedure or formula used to solve Wordle puzzles. In the context of Wordle, algorithms can help determine optimal starting words and subsequent guesses based on letter frequency analysis and information theory.
Entropy
A measure of information gain in information theory. In Wordle strategy, entropy helps quantify how much a particular guess reduces the possible solution space.
Information Theory
The mathematical study of quantifying information. Applied to Wordle, it helps determine which words provide the most information when used as guesses.
Minimax Strategy
A decision rule that minimizes the maximum possible loss. In Wordle, this approach focuses on eliminating as many potential words as possible with each guess.
Remaining Solution Set
The collection of words that remain possible solutions after certain letters have been confirmed or eliminated through previous guesses.
Frequency Analysis
The study of the distribution of letters in a language. Applied to Wordle, it helps determine which letters are most likely to appear in solution words.
Optimal Play
Making guesses that maximize information gain and minimize the number of attempts needed to solve a Wordle puzzle, often based on statistical analysis.