Best Wordle starting words

Tested against every past Wordle answer, 1924 puzzles and counting.

Everyone has a favorite opener. Instead of guessing, we played 24 popular starting words against every past Wordle answer (1924 puzzles) and counted what each one turned up on the first row. This page updates itself every day.

The ranking weights green letters double, since a letter in the right spot is worth more than a letter in the wrong one. By that measure, SOARE currently comes out on top.

#	Word	Avg greens	Avg yellows	3+ letters found	Blank first row
1	SOARE	0.68	1.11	21%	8%
2	ROATE	0.57	1.26	23%	7%
3	STARE	0.59	1.19	23%	10%
4	SLATE	0.63	1.07	19%	9%
5	IRATE	0.53	1.27	22%	8%
6	ARISE	0.56	1.21	20%	7%
7	CRATE	0.60	1.12	20%	10%
8	RAISE	0.55	1.22	20%	7%
9	TRACE	0.58	1.14	20%	10%
10	STALE	0.59	1.11	19%	9%
11	CRANE	0.62	1.04	18%	10%
12	SALET	0.56	1.14	19%	9%
13	LATER	0.43	1.37	22%	8%
14	ALERT	0.40	1.40	22%	8%
15	TEARS	0.40	1.39	23%	10%
16	LEAST	0.48	1.23	19%	9%
17	HEART	0.46	1.24	20%	11%
18	ROAST	0.50	1.12	17%	11%
19	ADIEU	0.31	1.19	10%	7%
20	PIANO	0.39	0.97	8%	12%
21	AUDIO	0.27	1.06	5%	8%
22	GHOST	0.42	0.73	6%	25%
23	OUIJA	0.23	0.95	2%	9%
24	FUZZY	0.29	0.18	1%	60%

How to read this

"Avg greens" is the average number of letters in the right spot on the first guess. "3+ letters found" is how often the word reveals at least three of the answer's letters, green or yellow. "Blank first row" is how often it finds nothing at all. Words full of common letters like E, A, R, T and S do best. Vowel-heavy openers such as ADIEU find vowels, but they rarely land them in the right place.