3 letter Wordle strategy

Count your spare guesses

Subtract unsolved boards from guesses left. That number is your margin. A guess that solves a board keeps the margin; a guess that solves nothing lowers it by one.

The starting margin is small at every size:

• 1 board: 6 guesses, 5 spare.
• 4 boards: 9 guesses, 5 spare.
• 16 boards: 21 guesses, 5 spare.
• 32 boards: 37 guesses, 5 spare.
• 64 boards: 70 guesses, 6 spare.
• 128 boards: 135 guesses, 7 spare.

What three letters changes

Each guess shows you only three letters, so you learn less per turn than at any other length, and almost every answer has near neighbours. On one board it is the hardest length to finish in six guesses. On large puzzles it swings the other way: the answer list is small, so much of it is on the boards and ordinary words keep landing as solutions.

Word families

Three-letter words come in the biggest rhyming families of any length: BAT, CAT, FAT, HAT, MAT, PAT, RAT, SAT; or BIG, DIG, PIG, RIG, WIG. Two green letters can still leave eight answers.

On one board, a family that size can outlast your six guesses, so spend an early turn on a word that carries two of the changing letters, such as CAB or HIP. On many boards the small answer list works for you: a large share of all possible answers is in play, so a common word entered to test letters will often solve a board somewhere.

When to stop opening

Two openers with 6 different letters put clues on almost every board. After that, find a board whose answer is certain and enter it: you solve that board and add a row of clues to all the others.

At zero margin, every remaining guess has to solve a board for a full clear.

A scanning routine

Go through the boards in the same order each time and hide solved boards once the grid starts to thin out. Clear what is certain first, then return to the boards with few clues. The answers you entered in between may have settled them.