Variations on Wordle for wordies.

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Most people are probably aware of Wordle, a word game in which we test 5-letter words against a word to be discovered. If any letter in your test word appears in the answer in the same position, it becomes green. If a letter in the test word is in the answer but in a different position, it's marked yellow, and any letter in the test word that doesn't appear in the answer is marked grey.

About a month ago, a friend turned me on to a variation in which sixteen puzzles are being solved at once call Sedecordle. Subsequently, I discovered a 32 grid and a 64 grid variation. Now I play all four every day and wondered if anybody else might like this:

Here are the four links:

Wordle: Wordle - A daily word game
Sedecordle (16): sedecordle
32: Thirty-two Wordles
64: 64ordle - Play Online then select daily "sexaginta-quattuordle"

I do these as scientifically as I can, that is, deductively rather than guessing. To assist, I use a tool called Wordle Solver - Find the word or get inspired now! In all four games, my 1st word is LATER. In most of the one grid original games, my second word is PIOUS. LATER and PIOUS are my first two words in the other three games every time, simply because I've tested 9 of the 10 commonest letters in 5-letter English words.

My goal in the three multi-grid variations is to solve all the puzzles in 2 more tries than grid, so 18 for the 16-board Sedecordle, 34 for the 32-grid variation, and 66 for the 64 grid variation. Be extension, it could be 4 for the original Wordle, but I'm setting 3 as the goal, which takes a little luck. I've never had these four scores on the same day, but I've only been trying for a few weeks.

I've already finished the 64 and 32 grid games, and scored 66 and 34 on them. The 64 involved no guessing, but with the 32, after 31 grids were solved, I had PUL*Y for the 32nd grid, and it was a guess between PULLY and PULPY. I had no choice but to guess and guessed correctly today. That doesn't always happen.

I'm doing the 16 grid Sedecordle now. Here's a screen shot from early in my Sedecordle (16) game from today - my first of 16 solutions. There's only one word with an I in second position (green), an L and an R but not in 1st or 5th position respectively, and containing no A, T, E, P, O, U or S, and it was GIRLY, which now appears in the other 15 grids:

Next, I found the grid on the left. Once again, only one word has an O in the 3rd position, and a PAT with the P not 1st, the A not second, and the T not third, and it was ADOPT. I'm not ready to attempt to solve the grid to its right, but there are only three candidate solutions: THREE, THREW, and BERET:

This one will be POWER or POKER. Hopefully, I'll solve a puzzle with a P or K in the answer, which will tell me which it is:

My hope is to now finish this 16-grid variation in 18 (2 solved, 14 to go), which means no wrong trials. And if that happens, which will be the first time, it's on to the original Wordle to see if I can get it in three. Two is the gold standards for a great result, and that happened to every Wordle player, but that usually requires a lucky guess, and I'm trying to eliminate guessing a much as possible.

Here's the next one solved. What five letter word ends in UT and contains no A, E, I, or U? If A and O hadn't been eliminated, it might have been ABOUT. If I hadn't been eliminated, it might have been INPUT. Since E is ruled out, so is DEBUT. There is only one possible answer to this (in SPOILER below):

Spoiler

As you can see, solving UNCUT made the puzzle to its left solvable. Only TRUNK works, and now that K has been tested in every grid, I can return to PO*ER and solve it definitively:

I realize that this is unappealing to many and would be more of a headache than a game to some, but if there are any other people who like deductive puzzles, you might like to try these.

Update: Had to guess on the 16-grid game and guessed wrong exceeding the 18 tries I allot myself, so still not a perfect day. Some day.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Update:

Regarding the post above, I couldn't get the 16ordler in 18 tests. But I did today.

I'm dropping the original single grid Wordle (below) from the challenge, since it is too luck dependent. I needed five test words today, and it was all guessing after LATER. OUTER seemed like a good choice, since it introduced the O and U, which meant that an I, another E or a Y was in the front of the word. So, I tested ENTER, since N is a common letter. Bad luck again. Thise is an *ETER word (DETER, METER, or PETER), so I guessed again and guessed wrong again. This variation is too much luck to include with the much more skill oriented 16, 32, and 64 grid variations.

But good news. For the first time, I accomplished my goal of 18, 34, and 66 tests respectively:

16ordle: I had 3 of 21 tests remaining when I got the 16th grid:

*********

32ordle: 34 of 37 "guesses" used with three remaining unused tests (I'm trying to avoid guessing here, just deduction) after 32 solutions:

*********

And for 64ordle, 66 tests:

One more chance at deduction:

We can tell from the game numbers that these were released in this order. 16ordle is on game 918 (918 days before Aug 19, 2024 was Feb 13, 2022, the apparent launch date of 16ordle), 32ordle was launched 17 days later (Mar 2, 2022), since it's only up to game 901, and 64ordle being on game 879, 22 days after that (Mar 24, 2022).

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Further update (two weeks later, all puzzle numbers up by 14 compared to the post above): My first perfect day. Every puzzle solved two more trials than solutions. Incidentally, I realize that nobody or almost nobody cares about this, but I'm using this thread to keep information available for personal use in the future.

First, the original Wordle with one qrid:

Then Sedecordle with16 grids. 3/21 means that there were eighteen word tests to solve 16 grids:

Then the 32-grid version, 34/37 allotted tests needed:

Then the 64-grid puzzle, with 66 tests:

*********

One more first/oddity. On the 16-grid version, it was possible to solve the first six grid first, although the order was 2-1-4-3-5-6. This just doesn't happen. You have to solve these as you can. Out of 16, the first one can solve definitively (remember, the point is to use deduction and not guess) might be #13 followed by #6 then #11.

The first two words for me are always LATER and PIOUS, although with the single grid original version, if I hit two vowels in LATER as was the case today, I don't test the other vowels right away. These are the first two grids. What word has an A, T, I and U in it with none of them in positions tested (hence yellow). Just 1: AUDIT. Grid 1 wasn't solvable after two tests, but the D from AUDIT gives me another four letter combo - all out of position again - and there is only one answer: DRAWL.

Then I scrolled down to the next two grids. The first two tests aren't visible here, but I had yellow Ls in the first and last positions from LATER and DRAWL, yellow Rs in the 2nd and 5th positions from the same two words, a yellow E in the 4th position from LATER, and a yellow P from PIOUS. Only one word has an E, L, P, and R where none of those letters belong where they were previously identified, and it's REPLY. Then the Y from REPLY limits the possibilities for the grid to its left also to just one: LYRIC:

Then the next two grids also have just one possible solution each:

It was an amazing string of luck, where the previous word supplies a new letter that leaves another grid with only one solution. The D from AUDIT made DRAWL solvable, the Y from REPLY defined LYRIC, and the C from LYRIC defined WELCH. The letters from SPOUT all were yellow in the first two grids, but there is only one word with those five letters in any order.

And that was the first six grids from the 16-grid variant - the first six solved, and with no scrolling up during that time. I don't expect to see that again.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Huh?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I'm a fan of Waffle - it's a grid of Wordles crisscrossing each other crossword-style:

Waffle

The waffle-shaped daily word game.

wafflegame.net

 

[Alien826]

I hope you won't mind a tangent on the subject, but this makes me wonder (not for the first time) about the way my brain works.

I'm hopeless at puzzles like this, and also at scrabble, which seems to use a similar mental ability, that is to rearrange things in your head and test against known arrangements. On the other hand I'm moderately good at cross-word puzzles, where a meaning is part of the process. I determine what the clue means then search my vocabulary for words that mean that.

I could quite quickly write a computer program to do what you do to solve the puzzles, once you had explained the method involved. Note that I'd create the logic flow, but then use a search routine to look for words in an on-line dictionary.

I don't think in symbols, like letters. If I think of a cat I see an image of a cat, not "CAT". If I want to talk about a cat it starts with the image then I look for the word, then I say it. I have always suffered mildly from something called aphasia, where I can't think of a word, even though I know there is a word that means what I want to say. When I remember it, it's immediately recognized as something I previously knew. There are words that I always have difficulty with, even after remembering them multiple times. This has got much worse in my declining years.

I used to play bridge well enough to play with others at home, but I could never remember the more complicated bidding systems, and used to play somewhat intuitively.

I played chess moderately well, but was hopeless at draughts (checkers). This always puzzled me, as chess seems to be the more difficult game.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

I'm a fan of Waffle - it's a grid of Wordles crisscrossing each other crossword-style:

Thanks for that.

Huh?

If you like word games, dive on in. Begin with the daily NY times puzzle at Wordle - A daily word game

If you like it and once you get the gist of what you're trying to do, you can add any number of variations.

Here are a few of the variations under the NY Times single grid game (these are the ones I play daily):
Wordle: Wordle - A daily word game
Sedecordle (16): sedecordle
32: Thirty-two Wordles
64: 64ordle - Play Online then select daily "sexaginta-quattuordle"

And thank you for a friendly response.

I could quite quickly write a computer program to do what you do to solve the puzzles, once you had explained the method involved. Note that I'd create the logic flow, but then use a search routine to look for words in an on-line dictionary.

Good idea, and it's already been done. I use such software daily: Wordle Solver - Find the word or get inspired now!

As I mentioned in post 1, some people object to using that, but it makes the game more interesting in my opinion. I want it to be as little guessing and as much deduction as possible. It's easy to overlook that a given puzzle has two or more possible answers when one only thinks of one of them. Today, I had LO*ER, and S, P, and N were all eliminated. I thought the answer had to be LOVER, but I overlooked a possibility that Wordlesolver reminded me of - LOWER. And it's a good thing. If I had entered LOVER (it turned out to be LOWER), there goes the spotless game.

Sometimes, it shows me words I don't know. I had one recently where the only possibility seemed to be UTILE, but there's a food I'd never heard of called TUILE. it was TUILE.

I'm hopeless at puzzles like this, and also at scrabble, which seems to use a similar mental ability, that is to rearrange things in your head and test against known arrangements. On the other hand I'm moderately good at cross-word puzzles, where a meaning is part of the process.

Yes, you're more into semantics than typographics, the latter being the games that focus on the appearance and arrangement of letters and words but not their meanings. I enjoy both, like, what is the longest word that can be made with just letters on the left side of the keyboard (STEWARDESS) or using just the top row of letters (TYPEWRITER).

I live in a town called Ajijic, which is a typographical oddity in the sense that in lower case, it contains 4 consecutive dotted letters. Fiji and Beijing have three each, but 4 is an outlier.

We have a chain of convenience stores here called OXXO, which is a tour de force in word and letter symmetry. As you know, symmetry refers to exact correspondence of parts on either side of a midline. Thus, the letter “A” is symmetric about a vertical axis (aka mirror symmetry or 180 degree rotational symmetry), but B is symmetric about a horizontal axis, and so looks backwards in a mirror. Some letters can be inverted and look the same (S). Some letters can be rotated 90 degrees and look the same, which brings us to O and X as in OXXO. The most symmetry a letter can possess is 90 degree rotational symmetry, which confers upon it all of the rest (vertical, horizontal, and diagonal symmetry).

OXXO maximizes both letter and word symmetry. OXXO is a palindrome. It can be written on paper, turned upside down. and it looks the same. It can be held up to a mirror and it looks the same.

Unsurprisingly, I wrote an article for a local monthly magazine about the OXXO in Ajijic, They just opened a second one a few years ago: You are being redirected...

Here's the other one, just two blocks down the hill from our home

And then there's anagrams. I'll spare you that since this is already more than a lot of people want to see. Suffice it to say that the letters of my first and last names anagram to ELEPHANT'S LEGS and LENGTH PLEASES. Here's a resource for anagramming if you are interested: Internet Anagram Server / I, Rearrangement Servant : anagram, anagrams, nag a ram, anagrammatize, anagrammatise, anagramme, anagrama, wordplay, word play, anagram creator, anagram solver, anagram finder, anagram generator, anagram maker, anagram unscrambler, anagram machine, anagram constructor, anagram builder, crossword, transmogrify, pangram, shuffle

I used to play bridge well enough to play with others at home, but I could never remember the more complicated bidding systems, and used to play somewhat intuitively.

We have that in common as well as crossword puzzling (we're cruciverbalists). Bridge is a game I play several times a week, twice with my wife at our local bridge club, three times a week online with friends, and daily online tournaments against strangers or robots.

And our bidding systems are complex. Here's Neal's and my recent reworking of responses to an opening bid of 1NT. You probably know what that means, what Stayman and Transfers are, what invitational and game forcing mean, and what a stopper is. Splinters are suit bids that say that I have only one or no cards in the splinter suit. So, in the sequence below that goes 1N (N is for no trump)-2S-3C-3H (third box down on the left), the conversation has been:

1N - I have a balanced 15-17 high card points
2S - I have 8+ points, fewer that 4 hearts and 4 spades, and at least 4 clubs and four diamonds. Do you have four of either of those?
3C - yes, I have 4-5 clubs
3H - great; I'm short in hearts

That's great news if the 1N opener has a hand like AK3-9764-KQ-AQJ75 (this represents opener's S-H-D-C holding). Opener's only weakness is in hearts, and I've got that suit stopped with shortness. We're probably going to game or slam here. With the hand shown, opener's next bid will be 3S to show slam interest and a spade stopper (control). The art of bidding is the two partners communicating what they have and knowing what they can do with that.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

If you like word games, dive on in. Begin with the daily NY times puzzle at Wordle - A daily word game

I play it daily.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

I play it daily.

OK. Then you're familiar with the game. I've been doing Wordle for over two years, and just started these multi-grid games a few weeks ago. Strategy is different and the experience different.

I also enjoyed @9-10ths_Penguin 's game, which very fun to play. The starting grid and finished puzzle look like this. What shall we substitute where? The word in the bottom row was obviously TWEED and the right column either RAGED or RIGID given the constraints imposed by the 21 letters supplied:

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Most people are probably aware of Wordle, a word game in which we test 5-letter words against a word to be discovered. If any letter in your test word appears in the answer in the same position, it becomes green. If a letter in the test word is in the answer but in a different position, it's marked yellow, and any letter in the test word that doesn't appear in the answer is marked grey.

About a month ago, a friend turned me on to a variation in which sixteen puzzles are being solved at once call Sedecordle. Subsequently, I discovered a 32 grid and a 64 grid variation. Now I play all four every day and wondered if anybody else might like this:

Here are the four links:

Wordle: Wordle - A daily word game
Sedecordle (16): sedecordle
32: Thirty-two Wordles
64: 64ordle - Play Online then select daily "sexaginta-quattuordle"

I do these as scientifically as I can, that is, deductively rather than guessing. To assist, I use a tool called Wordle Solver - Find the word or get inspired now! In all four games, my 1st word is LATER. In most of the one grid original games, my second word is PIOUS. LATER and PIOUS are my first two words in the other three games every time, simply because I've tested 9 of the 10 commonest letters in 5-letter English words.

My goal in the three multi-grid variations is to solve all the puzzles in 2 more tries than grid, so 18 for the 16-board Sedecordle, 34 for the 32-grid variation, and 66 for the 64 grid variation. Be extension, it could be 4 for the original Wordle, but I'm setting 3 as the goal, which takes a little luck. I've never had these four scores on the same day, but I've only been trying for a few weeks.

I've already finished the 64 and 32 grid games, and scored 66 and 34 on them. The 64 involved no guessing, but with the 32, after 31 grids were solved, I had PUL*Y for the 32nd grid, and it was a guess between PULLY and PULPY. I had no choice but to guess and guessed correctly today. That doesn't always happen.

I'm doing the 16 grid Sedecordle now. Here's a screen shot from early in my Sedecordle (16) game from today - my first of 16 solutions. There's only one word with an I in second position (green), an L and an R but not in 1st or 5th position respectively, and containing no A, T, E, P, O, U or S, and it was GIRLY, which now appears in the other 15 grids:

View attachment 95801

Next, I found the grid on the left. Once again, only one word has an O in the 3rd position, and a PAT with the P not 1st, the A not second, and the T not third, and it was ADOPT. I'm not ready to attempt to solve the grid to its right, but there are only three candidate solutions: THREE, THREW, and BERET:

View attachment 95800

This one will be POWER or POKER. Hopefully, I'll solve a puzzle with a P or K in the answer, which will tell me which it is:

View attachment 95804


My hope is to now finish this 16-grid variation in 18 (2 solved, 14 to go), which means no wrong trials. And if that happens, which will be the first time, it's on to the original Wordle to see if I can get it in three. Two is the gold standards for a great result, and that happened to every Wordle player, but that usually requires a lucky guess, and I'm trying to eliminate guessing a much as possible.

Here's the next one solved. What five letter word ends in UT and contains no A, E, I, or U? If A and O hadn't been eliminated, it might have been ABOUT. If I hadn't been eliminated, it might have been INPUT. Since E is ruled out, so is DEBUT. There is only one possible answer to this (in SPOILER below):

View attachment 95805

Spoiler

View attachment 95808

As you can see, solving UNCUT made the puzzle to its left solvable. Only TRUNK works, and now that K has been tested in every grid, I can return to PO*ER and solve it definitively:

View attachment 95809

I realize that this is unappealing to many and would be more of a headache than a game to some, but if there are any other people who like deductive puzzles, you might like to try these.

Update: Had to guess on the 16-grid game and guessed wrong exceeding the 18 tries I allot myself, so still not a perfect day. Some day.

It's helpful to know how often letters appear in English words, and the first 12, in order of frequency are:

E T A O I N S H R D L U

Helpful first guesses are, then, words that contain 5 of those (no duplicates), closer to the left: Like STEIN, SAINT, HEART, TRASH and so on.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

It's helpful to know how often letters appear in English words, and the first 12, in order of frequency are:

E T A O I N S H R D L U

Helpful first guesses are, then, words that contain 5 of those (no duplicates), closer to the left: Like STEIN, SAINT, HEART, TRASH and so on.

It's an okay approach, but the likelihood of a letter will vary depending on which other letters are in the word.

Also, Wordle solutions aren't necessarily chosen randomly.

Personally, I find it easiest for me to focus on finding the vowels. I know a lot of people will use "ADIEU" as their first word with this strategy. I'm weird, so I typically use "AUDIO" as my first word for similar reasons, then look to drop in an E and Y at my first opportunity.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Personally, I find it easiest for me to focus on finding the vowels. I know a lot of people will use "ADIEU" as their first word with this strategy. I'm weird, so I typically use "AUDIO" as my first word for similar reasons, then look to drop in an E and Y at my first opportunity.

From: The New Yourk Times: Lessons From the Past Year of Wordle

1. Of the top 30 starting words, ADIEU is the most popular but least efficient.​

Many, many words have been written about the best opening word for Wordle. Answering this question, in fact, was one of the motivations behind WordleBot’s development. In its robot brain, a handful of words — SLATE, CRANE, TRACE — are best.​

​

For human Wordle players, the most popular opening word by some margin is ADIEU. AUDIO, another four-vowel word, is the fourth-most popular.​

​

The strategy seems to make sense: Figure out the vowels, and the other letters will fall into place. Our new analysis shows, though, that starting with ADIEU or AUDIO puts human players at a disadvantage. How much of one?​

​

On average, players who started with ADIEU needed about a third of a turn more to solve their Wordles compared with players who started with SLATE.​

Another interesting read is here which provides a link to a peer-reviewed study that lists the top five starting words as:

1. SALET -- 3.42117
2. REAST -- 3.42246
3. TRACE -- 3.42376
4. CRATE -- 3.42376
5. SLATE -- 3.42462

As I noted in post #8, I play Wordle daily. (Actually, that's only partially true, since I play it with my wife, and alternate whish of us provides the initial word.) Being somewhat anal I've tracked our last 794 games on a spreadsheet. At this point - after completing Wordle game # 1171 - our average is 3.8703 guesses per game*. (We do very slightly better when my wife picks the first word.)

It's helpful to know how often letters appear in English words, and the first 12, in order of frequency are:

E T A O I N S H R D L U

Over these 794 games ...

the six vowels ...​

E(395), A(310), O(215), I(211), U(134), Y(113)​

​

the top six consonants ...​

R(261), T(238), L(221), N(182), S(180), C(144)​

* While 3.87 strikes me as being fairly good, the spreadsheet gives us one readily available advantage in that, before any particular guess, we are able to search our history to see if the word has been used by the NYT over the course of that history.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Speaking of coincidences ...

NOTE: the following discusses this morning's game played after I wrote my previous post. It discloses the solution, so don't look if you intend to play the game.

Spoiler: Wordle Game 1172

• It was my turn to offer the first word.
• I chose SALET.
• We found that the A and the T were in the correct place.
• We thought of trying PAINT, but found that this was the answer to Wordle Game #1098.
• So we tried FAINT instead, and we won.
• Game in 2 ...

Weird!

 

[Secret Chief]

I start with

ADIEU

then

STORM, STORK or STORY.

Get them vowels in. The only English words without a vowel, use a Y.

Did today in three...

 

[Secret Chief]

As well as Wordle, I like to play Combinations.

Combinations - Daily Word Game

I went off Spelling Bee. Too often has non-words. (Done by AI?).

I also went off Connections. Too many American things (eg 4 baseball teams) and cultural stuff I had no hope with (eg pop singers or films I'd not heard of, let alone seen).

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

It's helpful to know how often letters appear in English words, and the first 12, in order of frequency are: E T A O I N S H R D L U

Helpful first guesses are, then, words that contain 5 of those (no duplicates), closer to the left: Like STEIN, SAINT, HEART, TRASH and so on.

Thanks.

You might find this of interest: SHRDLU - Wikipedia

My first word is always LATER. Unless the A and E are both hits (yellow or green), my next word is PIOUS, which might not be as efficient as my buddy Clint's choices, SOARE and UNLIT. We have nine letters in common. He has an N where I have a P, and maybe a word with the E last is better, since that is a common place to find an E. Thus, if my only hit with LATER is a yellow E, my next word is NOISE, which tests a terminal E, two more vowels, and two common consonants. Letter frequency is an important consideration.

But I'm sticking with my present strategy, since the results are satisfactory. My mean number of tests per game is between 3 and 4:

In case you're interested, this is the exact same game ( WordPlay: The Wordle Unlimited Practice Game ) but can be played an unlimited number of times daily. As you can see, my first word has been LATER 8689 times now. Since I hit 2 vowels, PIOUS wasn't tested this time as it was in the spoiler below:

Personally, I find it easiest for me to focus on finding the vowels. I know a lot of people will use "ADIEU" as their first word with this strategy. I'm weird, so I typically use "AUDIO" as my first word for similar reasons, then look to drop in an E and Y at my first opportunity.

I'm sure that you get good results there as well.

NOTE: the following discusses this morning's game played after I wrote my previous post. It discloses the solution, so don't look if you intend to play the game.

Spoiler: Wordle Game 1172

• It was my turn to offer the first word.
• I chose SALET.
• We found that the A and the T were in the correct place.
• We thought of trying PAINT, but found that this was the answer to Wordle Game #1098.
• So we tried FAINT instead, and we won.
• Game in 2 ...

Weird!

Congratulations.

I didn't realize that you could search old games for past solutions. I just found out how: Past Wordle Words – Alphabetical Answers List, No Spoiler!

I had a typical result (4):

Spoiler

I chose TAINT for word 3 because it increased my chances of placing the T to test T in two spots, and it tests N, which is frequently productive as it was today. With S and P eliminated, only one answer was possible

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

I didn't realize that you could search old games for past solutions.

We don't "search old games for past solutions." In fact, we avoid that site. Instead, we search our games by searching our spreadsheet. At least that way we've limited ourselves to information that we've acquired through our own effort.

Returning post #12, I find it interesting that SALET scores 3.42117 while SLATE scores 3.42462.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

I start with

ADIEU

My first word is always LATER.

Will that continue to be the case?

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

We don't "search old games for past solutions." In fact, we avoid that site. Instead, we search our games by searching our spreadsheet. At least that way we've limited ourselves to information that we've acquired through our own effort.

I don't know how to search my games, but since I've played almost all of the last 929 games (occasionally I forget one day), those lists should be about the same.

Will that continue to be the case?

If you're asking me (you quoted two of us), yes, I intend to continue using LATER first and following it up with PIOUS whenever one or neither of its vowels are hits with a few exceptions. I named one before: when I only get a yellow E and four misses, I like NOISE next; or if I get the A and T both yellow, I like STAIN second for the reason that it does so much: tries T and A in new spots and tests a common vowel and two common consonants. If I get just a yellow A, I'll test ADIOS second. It's remarkable how often that places the A first in the solution, and D is an ETAOINSHRDLU letter, so it's a god second choice for those occasions.

I'm also fond of second words that test a yellow letter in two places. If LATER just gives me a yellow T and R, I try TROUT. Placing a consonant is very valuable, and words like that also identify the times when the test letter is a double letter. Thus if I get a yellow T and E, I'm apt to try TEETH.

I don't know if these are optimal strategies, and I do like optimization and efficiency, but I don't know how to test my choices except empirically, and my results are about as good as I can expect. I'd like to know if somebody is getting better results with a different strategy, but don't know how to determine that.

I think my friend's choices, SOARE and UNLIT are slightly better than mine, but for some reason, I don't feel good using words that I didn't know like SOARE. I can't give you a good reason for that.

I also prefer to be original, and once again, can't defend that.

What I don't like about the 4 vowel choices (AUDIO. ADIEU) as an initial word is that I don't need to test more vowels right away if A and E are hits, so I reserve the other three common vowels for the second choice when I don't do as well or have one of the patterns I just named. But maybe this is wrong-headed.

I'm surprised and pleased to see so much discussion on this topic.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Will that continue to be the case?

If you're asking me (you quoted two of us), yes, I intend to continue using LATER ...

^ remarkable