A Better Way to Wordle?

How do you like to waste time? Wordle is one pastime that many of us enjoy in the NY Times. And then there are Quordle (4 Wordles at once) and Octordle (8 Wordles at once), both from the Merriam Webster/Britannica folk.

Quordle and Octordle Are Different, Not Harder

If you have not yet tried Quordle or Octordle, don’t be intimidated. The strategies are a bit different from Wordle, which adds much to the enjoyment and a bit to the challenge. For each of them you have the standard approach, where the word entry you make appears simultaneously in the 4 or 8 Wordle blocks, or the sequence approach, where your word entries only show up in one block until that Wordle is solved, then they appear in the next block, and so on.

Multitasking Challenge

In Wordle, the challenge is to guess the solution word in as few attempts as possible but without failing to solve the word by the sixth try. In Quordle and Octordle you have the added strategic element that each of your trial word entries applies to other Wordle instances, so you may want to make a different word choice that will advance your game in multiple Wordle blocks. Each word entry may show one or more green or yellow letters, the former representing a letter that is in that position in the puzzle answer, and the latter for a letter that is in use in the answer word but not in that position. And of course there are a limited number of trial turns, which tend to be generous.

Here is what a completed Quordle looks like:

My Start Word Approach

After several thousand games of Wordle, Quordle and Octordle with good and consistent results, I’d like to offer a few suggestions about what I believe is a highly effective approach. And I’d be happy to hear back with alternative starting approaches from other puzzle addicts.

First, I believe using the same starting word each time is best. And the same second word, unless the first word unexpectedly has many matching letters. I use:

STAIR

then

NOULE

If no clearly useful information comes from the first two, I will use:

CADGY

I use these specific words because by the end of two turns I have all vowels except the Y together with L N R S and T, and after three turns I have all the vowels A E I O U and Y together with C D G L N R S and T.

WHOMP

If my first three choices are insufficient to solve all the puzzle (frequently true in Quordle or Octordle, rarely in a single Wordle), then I use WHOMP, which I have found to be the most effective set of letters to facilitate a wide variety of word completions in the absence of better clues.

By the way, NOULE is the top of the head, and CADGY means cheerful. Though neither is exactly common use, they are accepted in all the games.

Positive and Negative Inferences

By using consistent words to start, it is much easier to make negative as well as positive inferences about the answer words. For me, after 3 turns if only a single “A” has appeared, I am sure the word has only that single vowel and no other. Similarly the wide variety of frequently occurring consonants that are covered in my entry words makes it easier to reason to the possible remaining words.

Please enjoy your word games. There is modest evidence that mental puzzles of this sort are helpful to keep brain function sharp. If you have a more effective set of initial words, I’d love to hear.