4 Letter Wordle
Difficulty
What Is 4 Letter Wordle?
4 Letter Wordle is Wordle with a four-letter hidden word. After each guess the tiles turn green, yellow or gray to show which letters are right. Here you get 7 guesses instead of 6, and the game is unlimited: finish one word and the next one is ready.
The answers are 1,291 everyday four-letter words checked by hand, like BEAR, CLAY and GOLD. You can guess any of 3,914 real four-letter words.
You may also know it as four letter Wordle, or Wordle with 4 letters.
How to Play 4 Letter Wordle
- Type a four-letter word and press Enter.
- Read the colors on each tile.
- Use the clues in your next guess. Gray letters are out; yellow letters need a new spot.
- Solve it within 7 guesses, then start the next word.
A
Green: right letter, right spot
B
Yellow: in the word, wrong spot
C
Gray: not in the word
Example game
The answer is CLAY. TALE shows that A and L are in the word but in other spots. CORN puts C first. Now five words still fit: CLAD, CLAM, CLAP, CLAW and CLAY. Guessing them in order could use up the whole board, so the third guess is DAMP. It can't be the answer, but it tests D, M and P at once. All three come back gray, so only CLAW and CLAY are left, and CLAY is right.
TALE
CORN
DAMP
CLAY
Why Four Letters Get 7 Guesses
Short words come in big rhyming families. Our list has 11 answers that end in -EAR (BEAR, DEAR, FEAR, GEAR, HEAR, NEAR, PEAR, REAR, TEAR, WEAR, YEAR) and 9 that end in -AIL (FAIL, HAIL, JAIL, MAIL, NAIL, PAIL, RAIL, SAIL, TAIL). -ACK, -AKE, -ILL and -OLD have 8 each.
That makes four letters trickier than it looks. We had a computer play every answer, opening with a strong word and then only guessing words that still fit. With 6 rows it lost about 1 game in 25; with 7 it solved 98.7% of them. On average it needed 4.2 guesses, more than the 3.6 it needed with five-letter words. The seventh row makes the game fair.
Best Starting Words for 4 Letter Wordle
We tested opening words against all 1,291 answers and counted how many answers are still possible after the colors come back. The best openers that can also be the answer:
| Starting word | Answers left on average |
|---|---|
| ALOE | 92 of 1,291 |
| TALE | 93 |
| SALE | 97 |
| LATE | 98 |
| REAL | 99 |
TALE is our pick. ALOE is a little better on average, but TALE splits the answers into more groups (56 against 39), so you are less likely to be left with a big pile of words. Follow it with CORN for four new letters: after both, about 12 answers fit on average.
Four-Letter Wordle Tips
Most answers have one vowel
688 of the 1,291 answers have a single vowel (like BOLT or GOLD) and almost all the rest have two. Only 12 have three. Once you have found one vowel, put more effort into the consonants.
Know the common letters
E appears in 37% of answers, A in 35% and O in 28%, followed by L, R and T. S is the most common first letter and E the most common last letter, then T.
Check the endings
The most common endings are -LL, -RE, -ST, -NE and -CK. Repeated letters are less common than in longer words: only 18% of answers have one, like BALL or BOOK.
Break up rhyme families
When three or more words still fit, play a word that tests several of their different letters at once, as DAMP did in the example above. It costs one guess and saves several.
A Good First Step for New Players
Four letters is a quick game, which makes it a good start for younger players and anyone learning English. The answers are everyday words, there is no account to make, and the extra row gives room to learn from mistakes. When it feels easy, move up to Wordle Unlimited (5 letters) or 6 Letter Wordle.
Here is how the four word lengths compare. The computer average is the number of guesses a careful computer player needs:
| Length | Possible answers | Guesses | Computer average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 letters | 1,291 | 7 | 4.2 guesses |
| 5 letters | 2,459 | 6 | 3.6 guesses |
| 6 letters | 2,375 | 6 | 3.1 guesses |
| 7 letters | 2,227 | 6 | 2.8 guesses |
Play With Friends or in Class
In Friend Battle, pick Easy (4 letters) and share the code: you both get the same word and the first to solve it wins. For a group or a class, open a Wordle Room with 4-letter words.
It runs in any browser, so it works on school Chromebooks, iPads and phones with no download. Teachers can find ideas on Wordle for the Classroom.