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3 to 10 letter Wordle: which length is hardest?

Try 7 letter Wordle

128ordle can be played with words of three to ten letters on anything from 1 to 128 boards. The rules and guess limits are identical at every length, so the difference comes down to how much one guess tells you and how many answers look alike.

What stays the same

Every length uses the same colours, the same board counts and the same guess limits: 6 guesses for one board, 9 for four, 135 for 128. Answers within a puzzle are always different from each other.

Short words give you little information per guess and have many near neighbours. Long words give you a lot of information, and the difficulty moves to vocabulary and spelling.

Three letters

Tiny words and the most crowded families. The hardest length on one board, and a fast, unpredictable game on many. The 3-letter edition draws from 370 answers, and its most common letters are A (31%), E (24%), O (22%), T (20%).

The best opener, ATE, finds about 0.7 of its three letters in an average answer.

Four letters

Simple, familiar words, but each guess reveals little and families such as COLD, FOLD, GOLD, HOLD, SOLD and TOLD differ by one letter. The 4-letter edition draws from 850 answers, and its most common letters are E (42%), A (35%), O (27%), L (25%).

The best opener, EARL, finds about 1.2 of its four letters in an average answer.

Five letters: the classic balance

The classic game has the widest range of board counts, up to 2,048. It also has Hard mode, Party, Ladder Climb and the Daily Gauntlet, which the other lengths do not.

Six letters

More information per guess and fewer look-alike answers. Endings such as ER and LE turn green early while the opening letters stay open. The 6-letter edition draws from 1,100 answers, and its most common letters are E (68%), R (48%), A (41%), T (38%).

The best opener, RETAIN, finds about 2.6 of its six letters in an average answer.

Seven letters

Two openers cover half the alphabet. Deduction gets easier, and the work shifts to thinking of a word that fits. The 7-letter edition draws from 1,200 answers, and its most common letters are E (68%), R (55%), A (51%), T (45%).

The best opener, CERTAIN, finds about 3.3 of its seven letters in an average answer.

Eight letters

Lots of compound words and shared endings. Boards fill with colour quickly, and every row needs a real eight-letter word. The 8-letter edition draws from 1,200 answers, and its most common letters are E (67%), R (56%), A (56%), I (54%).

The best opener, RELATION, finds about 4.1 of its eight letters in an average answer.

Nine letters

A vocabulary game. Clues arrive fast, and the challenge is finding any valid nine-letter word that uses them. The 9-letter edition draws from 1,000 answers, and its most common letters are E (73%), I (61%), T (59%), R (58%).

The best opener, CREMATION, finds about 4.8 of its nine letters in an average answer.

Ten letters

The longest game. One guess tests ten letters at once, so it is all recall and careful spelling. The 10-letter edition draws from 800 answers, and its most common letters are E (75%), I (68%), T (66%), N (63%).

The best opener, PRECAUTION, finds about 5.5 of its ten letters in an average answer.

Which should you try first?

  • New to multi-board play: start with five letters on four boards.
  • Want a quick, tricky game: three or four letters on one or four boards.
  • Like longer words and faster clues: six or seven letters on eight or sixteen boards.
  • Enjoy vocabulary more than deduction: nine or ten letters on four boards.
  • Want the tightest margin: four letters on 128 boards, where word families and a seven-guess margin collide.