How to Play Quordle — Rules, Tips & Strategies

How to play, step by step

1. Open merriam-webster.com/games/quordle in any browser. No account required for Daily mode.
2. Type a five-letter word and press Enter. The same word appears on all four boards and each tile lights up green, yellow, or gray based on that board's answer.
3. Read the color pattern on each board independently. A green E on the bottom-left board does not mean the bottom-right has an E.
4. Decide whether your next guess should explore new letters (information) or lock in a board that already has three greens (solving).
5. Repeat until all four boards are green or you hit nine guesses. If even one board is unsolved after guess nine, the game ends.
6. Use the Share button to copy your color-grid result without spoiling the words.

What the tile colors mean

• Green tile: the letter is in the answer for that board AND in the correct position. Lock it in and move on.
• Yellow tile: the letter is in the answer for that board but in a different position. On your next guess, move it somewhere else — never leave it in the same slot.
• Gray tile: the letter is not in that board's answer. Treat it as a hard ban for that board only. The same letter might still be live on another board.
• Important quirk: duplicate letters are tracked per board. If your guess is "ERROR" and the answer has one R, Quordle shows only one R colored — the second R will gray out even if another R exists on a different board.

The best opening strategy for Quordle

Openers matter more in Quordle than in any other Wordle variant. Nine guesses sounds generous, but you need to spend your first two or three turns gathering information across four boards — not trying to win a single one. The consensus among top solvers is the two-guess ten-letter sweep: pick two opening words that together cover ten different high-frequency letters.

• CRANE + STOMP — covers C, R, A, N, E, S, T, O, M, P. The most popular sweep pair because it hits nine of the top ten most common English letters.
• TRACE + PLOID — slightly less common but catches the I and the D, which CRANE + STOMP miss.
• AUDIO + TRAMP — good when you suspect vowel-heavy answers (ASSAY, EAGLE) because AUDIO burns four vowels in one guess.
• ADIEU + STORM — the same vowel-heavy approach with a slightly different consonant set.

Do not lock in a board on guess two. Even if your opener reveals three greens on the top-left, keep playing information guesses until you have at least one scaffold letter on every board. Players who rush to finish the first solved board on guess three are the ones who run out of attempts on the fourth.

Mid-game: choosing which board to solve first

By guess four you should have scaffold letters on all four boards. The decision that separates a 7-guess solve from a 9-guess loss is which board you attack next.

• Count candidate words per board. The board with the fewest words consistent with your greens and yellows is the one to solve first. Burning a guess on a 40-candidate board is a wasted turn; burning a guess on a 3-candidate board is a lock.
• Respect the Q board. If a Q has turned up, that board has two or three candidate words at most (QUILT, QUART, QUOTA, QUACK, QUEEN). Solve it immediately and free a guess.
• Save ambiguous boards for last. Boards with only one or two scaffold letters should wait until you've solved two others, because solved boards often reveal letter-frequency clues that narrow the ambiguous ones.
• Avoid repeating letters you've already eliminated. It's the single most common streak-killer. Before every guess, scan the gray tiles on each board and make sure your next word avoids them for that board specifically.

Common mistakes that end streaks

• Opening with a single word like CRANE alone. One opener gives you five letters of information; two openers give you ten. Quordle punishes single-opener starts.
• Forcing a word that only fits one board. After guess three, players panic and guess an answer that only makes sense for the board they care about. That burns a turn for the other three.
• Ignoring yellow tiles on the next guess. A yellow means "move this letter." If you leave it in the same slot on your next guess, you've wasted the information.
• Treating Quordle like four Wordles in sequence. It's not. Every guess is parallel. The players who average under eight guesses per day plan two or three moves ahead across all four boards.

Daily vs. Practice mode

• Daily: one puzzle per day, shared across all players worldwide. Resets at midnight local time. This is the mode tracked for streaks.
• Sequence: an alternate mode that unlocks each board only after you solve the previous one — easier for new players.
• Practice: unlimited random puzzles. Your results don't count toward your streak, so it's the best place to try a new opener pair before committing it on the Daily.

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