Deep dives, openers and frequencies, to sharpen your next Wordle move, in English and French.
The grids everyone pastes into the group chat prove far less than they look like they prove: six years of daily play to separate two opening words. Then every real way to play together.
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France rewrote the rules and quietly made the game easier. The revealed first letter is worth 4.12 bits, wiping out 93.5 % of the dictionary before you type anything.
MYRRH has zero near-neighbours. LIGHT has eight. We counted every one-letter neighbour across 25,000 words in four languages to find what actually breaks streaks.
Spanish wins, because it effectively plays with a 17-letter alphabet instead of 27. Vowel load, repeated letters and dead letters compared across four languages.
Short words feel easier and aren't. Only 8.6 % of 4-letter English words are safe from confusion, against 46.4 % of 6-letter words.
98.5 % of Italian words end in a vowel. Measured consequence: the last square of a grid would be worth half what it is worth in English.
The language of 45-letter words speaks in three-letter words 31 % of the time. The widest gap between dictionary and mouth, across five languages.
Five genuine one-letter words, one of them ranked 2,383rd, and the shortest tail of long words among the five languages measured.
Three genders, four cases, 63-letter words, and verbs that split in half: a deep dive into why German challenges English speakers, and the surprising advantages it offers.
From "a" and "I" to a 45-letter Guinness record: official records, Shakespeare's longest word, and what it all means for word games.
Data-driven analysis of the best opening words for Wordle and GlyphDuel in English, French, Spanish and German. Visual examples, frequency charts and advanced strategies.
Complete letter frequency tables for French, English, Spanish and German to optimize your Wordle opening words. Analysis based on 5,000+ words of 4, 5 and 6 letters.