Play Lexle Online
Six guesses. Five letters. One word per day. Every guess tells you which letters are in, which are out, and which are in the wrong spot. The same puzzle goes out to everyone at once. Play it free right here, no downloads.
From a Brooklyn Apartment to a Global Phenomenon
In 2021, Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, built a word game for his partner. She loved word puzzles, so he made one just for her. He named it Wordle as a play on his last name. It was a private gift between two people. Nothing more.
He released it publicly in October 2021. By December, it had gone viral on Twitter. By January 2022, The New York Times acquired it for a price in the low seven figures. The format Wardle created is now a genre: five letters, six guesses, color-coded feedback, one puzzle per day. Lexle uses that same format.
The color system is the entire information engine. Green means the letter is in the word and in the right position. Yellow means the letter is in the word but in a different position. Gray means the letter is not in the word at all. Six rows of five tiles. That is the whole game.
In 2024, MIT researchers Dimitris Bertsimas and Alex Paskov published a peer-reviewed paper proving that the optimal starting word is SALET, a 15th-century helmet. Their algorithm solves the game in an average of 3.421 guesses and never needs the sixth. The paper appeared in the journal Operations Research.
How to Play Lexle
Type a five-letter word. Press Enter. Read the colors. Repeat.
- Type any valid five-letter word and press Enter
- Green tile: that letter is in the word and in the correct position
- Yellow tile: that letter is in the word but in a different position
- Gray tile: that letter is not in the word at all
- Use the feedback to eliminate possibilities for your next guess
- You have six guesses total
- The virtual keyboard at the bottom tracks which letters you have tried
The same word is used for every player each day. Once you solve it or run out of guesses, you wait until midnight for the next one.
Rules at a Glance
- Each guess must be a valid English word with exactly five letters
- You cannot guess random letter combinations that are not real words
- You have a maximum of six guesses per game
- The same word is used for all players each day
- Letters can appear more than once in the answer
- The game resets daily with a new word at midnight
- Your streak tracks how many consecutive days you have solved the puzzle
The answer is always a common English word. You will not encounter obscure or archaic terms.
The SALET Strategy
MIT researchers proved that SALET is the mathematically optimal opening word. It averages 3.421 guesses to solve, and the algorithm never needs the sixth guess. SALET is an obsolete word for a 15th-century helmet, which makes it awkward for daily play since many platforms reject words that are not in their dictionary.
For practical play, these openings are all strong:
- CRANE. Recommended by the New York Times WordleBot. Tests C, R, A, N, E. Five high-frequency letters in recognizable positions.
- SLATE. Same letters as SALET but in a more common word. WordleBot ranks it second. Tests S, L, A, T, E.
- TRACE. Tests T, R, A, C, E. Strong coverage of common consonants plus two vowels.
- RAISE. Tests R, A, I, S, E. Three vowels plus two common consonants. Good for revealing word structure early.
The principle behind all of these: maximize letter coverage. Avoid opening words with double letters like SPEED or SHELL. A doubled letter wastes one of your five slots on a letter you already know is present. Every slot should test a different letter.
After your opening guess, the strategy shifts from coverage to elimination:
- Do not reuse gray letters. Once a letter is gray, it is not in the word. The keyboard tracks this for you.
- Move yellow letters. A yellow letter is in the word but not where you put it. Try it in a different position on your next guess.
- Test fresh letters on guess two. If your first guess gave limited information, choose a second word that tests entirely different letters rather than building on the first.
- Watch for doubles. Words like SPEED, SUNNY, and LLAMA contain repeated letters. If your guesses seem to hit a dead end, consider that a letter might appear twice.
- Recognize suffix patterns. English words often end in -TION, -IGHT, -OUND, or -ASTE. If you have confirmed the last two letters, think about what suffixes fit.
Three Solves, Step by Step
Solve 1: The Three-Guess Win
You open with CRANE. The C turns gray, R turns green, A turns gray, N turns gray, E turns green. The word starts with R and ends with E. You guess RIDGE next. The I turns green in position 3. Now you have R _ I _ E with D and G eliminated. RIFLE fits. You guess it. All green. Solved in three.
Solve 2: The Yellow Shuffle
You open with SLATE. S turns gray, L turns gray, A turns yellow, T turns yellow, E turns gray. The word contains A and T but not in positions 3 or 4. You guess TRAIN. T turns green in position 1, R turns gray, A turns green in position 3, I turns gray, N turns gray. Now you have T _ A _ _. The word starts with T, has A in position 3. You guess TOAST. T is green, O is green, A is green, S is green, T is green. Solved in three. The yellow shuffle worked because you moved both letters to new positions.
Solve 3: The Double-Letter Trap
You open with RAISE. R is gray, A is green, I is gray, S is yellow, E is gray. The word has A in position 1 and S somewhere other than position 4. You guess ASIDE. A is green, S is green in position 2, I is gray, D is gray, E is gray. Now you have A S _ _ _. You try ASSET. A is green, S is green, S is green, E is green, T is green. Solved. The double S was the key. Without considering repeated letters, you would have been stuck on A S _ _ _ for several guesses.
Variations of the Format
The five-letter, six-guess format has spawned several variations.
- Hard Mode. You must use all confirmed letters in subsequent guesses. This prevents exploratory guesses and forces tighter logic. If you confirmed R in position 1, every following guess must start with R.
- Double Lexle. Solve two puzzles at the same time with shared guesses. Each guess applies to both boards simultaneously, so a letter that is green on one board might be gray on the other.
- Speed Lexle. A timed version where you race against the clock. Great for competitive players who want an extra challenge beyond the daily puzzle.
Lexle vs. Other Word Games
| Game | Input | Feedback | Word Length | Skill Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lexle | Full words | Color tiles | 5 letters | Deduction |
| HangWord | Single letters | Lives counter | Variable | Letter frequency |
| Crossword | Single letters | Crossing words | Variable | Vocabulary + trivia |
| Anagram Forge | Letter sets | Completion % | 7 letters | Vocabulary breadth |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best starting word for a Wordle-style game?
MIT researchers Dimitris Bertsimas and Alex Paskov published a peer-reviewed paper in 2024 proving that SALET is the optimal starting word, solving the game in an average of 3.421 guesses. SALET is an obsolete word for a 15th-century helmet. Other top starting words include TRACE, CRATE, and SLATE. The New York Times WordleBot recommends SLATE and CRANE based on a smaller computational search. For practical play, CRANE and SLATE are strong choices that are also recognizable words.
Who created Wordle and when was it acquired by the New York Times?
Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, created Wordle in 2021 as a private gift for his partner, who loved word games. He named it as a play on his last name. He released it publicly in October 2021 and it went viral in December 2021. The New York Times Company acquired Wordle in January 2022 for a price in the low seven figures. Lexle uses the same five-letter, six-guess, color-feedback format that Wardle pioneered.
How does the yellow tile feedback differ from green?
A green tile means the letter is correct and in the right position. A yellow tile means the letter exists in the hidden word but is in a different position than where you placed it. If you guess RAISE and the A turns yellow, the word contains A but not in position two. Your next guess should place A in positions one, three, four, or five.
What is hard mode and how does it change strategy?
In hard mode, you must use all confirmed information in every subsequent guess. If you confirmed the letter R in position one, every following guess must start with R. This prevents exploratory guesses, a common soft-mode tactic where players test fresh letters on guess three even after getting strong feedback. Hard mode forces tighter logical deduction.
Can letters appear more than once in the answer?
Yes. Words like SPEED, SUNNY, and LLAMA contain repeated letters. When a repeated letter appears, the game only highlights as many tiles as the word actually contains, so you can infer the exact count from the feedback. A gray tile on a letter you tested elsewhere as yellow means the word has no more of that letter beyond what you already confirmed.
Start Guessing
The constraint is the game. Six guesses. Five letters. One word per day. Each limit is deliberate. The color feedback is the entire information system, and learning to extract maximum signal from each row is the skill that separates players who average three guesses from those who average five. If you want to improve, focus less on vocabulary and more on the logic of eliminating positions with each guess.
If you enjoy the daily puzzle format, our Crossword also resets daily. For a letter-by-letter challenge without position feedback, try HangWord where you manage a lives budget instead. And if you want to build vocabulary breadth, Anagram Forge asks you to find every possible word from a set of letters rather than converging on one.