Social media platforms have been completely taken over by a combination of yellow and green block emojis. The Mastermind-style daily word game is a free browser game where players have six attempts at guessing the word of the day—given clues as they guess correct letters and their correct positions in the word. For many, Wordle acts as a small break in the doom and gloom comprising much of Twitter. Along with the creator Josh Wardle’s refusal to monetize his popular social phenomenon, the puzzle game has become a breath of fresh air—inspiring hope that humanity just might have a chance.
We, however, are not as noble and have decided to shamelessly use its popularity to collect all those wonderful clicks and promote products with affiliate links to you, our readers. In return, you’ll at least get some insight into what some good starting words might be to shake up your strategy and keep that streak going.
Here are what we’ve identified as the five exceptional starting words in Wordle and five products that have just enough to do with those words to give me a reason to write this in the first place.
ROAST | Wireless Meat Thermometer | $38
A balanced starting word contains both vowels and consonants. R, S, and T are three of the most popular which makes it a great chance at least one of them will show up when you guess ROAST. A balanced diet contains more than just meat, but your streak will be going on so long you won’t care about only eating steak every day. This wireless meat thermometer measures both the food and ambient temperature at the same time while it’s roasting. It can even be set to trigger an alarm when it reaches your desired temperature. The wireless signal reaches up to 490 feet so you can mingle with your BBQ guests about how you got today’s Wordle in only three meat cooks to perfection.
OUIJA | Wooden Spirit Board | $40
While it’s not my personal strategy, some folks swear by getting in as many vowels as possible in their early guesses. If you’d like to go this route, OUIJA will pave the road for you nicely. And then once you move on with your clues, you can consult this $40 spirit world to help you with your second guess. It’s only appropriate that the ghosts in your studio apartment can only communicate one letter at a time. That is all you’re need anyway to succeed.
AUDIO | AirPods Pro | $180
Following the same logic as above, a great way to knock out some vowels early on is the word AUDIO. In fact, this could prove even better as D may serve better use to you than J in the long run. Winning at Wordle requires you to be in a cool and collected headspace. Achieve this by listening to some gentle calming rainforest sounds through your AirPods Pro, which are going for $69 off the standard price.
STERN | Men in Black 3 | $8
One of the most reliable methods of guessing is utilizing the Wheel of Fortune strategy. Since 1988, contestants have been given RSTLNE from the get-go as those are the most common letters—making up roughly 45% of all the English language. The word STERN makes use of five out of six of these letters and will certainly put you on the right track. And once you solve the word, you can unwind in front of the TV with Men in Black 3 on Blu-ray which features a short, blink-and-you-miss-it cameo from Howard Stern. Truth be told, this may not actually even be him but just an extra dressed to look like him, yet it’s still listed on Howard Stern’s IMDb as an uncredited role.
BUTTS | Tushy Bidet Toilet Seat Attachment | $99
The biggest thing I learned from playing Wordle these past few weeks has been that all of our instincts are usually wrong. We try to outsmart the game, but there are always answers that pop up breaking our line of thinking. Look at the word from a few days ago, KNOLL. That one stumped so many in part due to its single vowel, repeat letters, and an odd consonant combination. These starting words may help you get to the right answer eventually, but if you ever want the honor of guessing the word in one go, you’re gonna have to be riskier than that. I propose you use BUTTS. A grand word it is and I have faith that if I keep entering this every day, eventually I will be rewarded with victory. A lot of you are likely playing from the toilet anyway why not join me and reward yourself for a game well-played with a jetstream of water aimed directly at your hole?