r/wordlegame

More of your opener suggestions, run the same way as the ones from my 47-opener post and the follow-up with your first 21. This time u/TrackVol sent me a list with four parts: a set of truly bad openers, SLART (a 4-consonant word predicted to beat CLASP), five words with two Es predicted to beat ADIEU, and every word that Scoredle, WordleBot and Wordle Tools have ever listed as #1. I ran all of them the same way as before: a bot plays all 1,898 past Wordle answers, with the same strategy after the first guess every time. Normal mode, and a loss counts as 7 guesses.

That's 19 new openers (XVIII isn't in the bot's dictionary, so I left it out), which brings the table to 87. This batch is in bold. JAZZY is bold too: I ran it for my first post but left it out of the last table.

Rank	Opener	Avg guesses	Solved in 3 or fewer	Alone fastest
1	SLATE	3.665	44.8%	3
2	LEAST	3.671	44.2%	3
3	SALET	3.672	43.8%	2
4	STALE	3.688	43.5%	2
5	LEANT	3.691	44.3%	7
6	TARSE	3.692	42.8%	1
7	SLART	3.697	42.9%	3
8	TEARS	3.697	42.7%	1
9	TRACE	3.701	43.4%	1
10	CRATE	3.703	43.4%	2
11	SNARE	3.709	42.5%	3
12	CRANE	3.709	42.1%	5
13	DEALT	3.712	41.8%	10
14	CLEAT	3.712	42.4%	4
15	PLATE	3.714	41.6%	1
16	TARPS	3.715	41.3%	3
17	TRAIN	3.715	42.9%	4
18	STARE	3.717	41.9%	2
19	LEARN	3.718	42.0%	6
20	TRADE	3.718	42.0%	8
21	CARLE	3.720	42.3%	5
22	TASER	3.720	41.2%	2
23	ALERT	3.723	41.9%	3
24	TARES	3.723	40.7%	0
25	ALTER	3.724	41.3%	2
26	TROPE	3.724	41.4%	9
27	REACT	3.726	41.6%	3
28	TIARE	3.726	42.5%	3
29	CLASP	3.726	39.8%	4
30	SANER	3.727	41.7%	5
31	HEART	3.729	42.4%	4
32	LEADS	3.729	41.9%	3
33	PARSE	3.729	40.4%	5
34	IRATE	3.731	41.9%	5
35	CASTE	3.736	40.6%	2
36	STERN	3.736	39.9%	2
37	ROATE	3.737	41.6%	3
38	PLACE	3.738	41.0%	8
39	MEANS	3.740	39.7%	9
40	TREND	3.743	39.6%	6
41	TRASH	3.750	41.1%	1
42	LATER	3.752	40.0%	4
43	SHIRT	3.753	41.1%	7
44	RAISE	3.757	41.5%	3
45	AROSE	3.762	40.1%	0
46	SAUCE	3.764	38.4%	6
47	AISLE	3.766	40.9%	4
48	SAUTE	3.767	39.4%	2
49	LOADS	3.767	38.5%	5
50	SOARE	3.771	40.7%	0
51	ECLAT	3.772	39.6%	2
52	ARISE	3.777	40.9%	1
53	EARTH	3.778	39.2%	3
54	STOAE	3.783	38.1%	1
55	TERSE	3.806	37.2%	4
56	OCEAN	3.806	37.6%	9
57	RATIO	3.806	39.0%	8
58	STYLE	3.806	35.9%	4
59	SLEET	3.808	36.6%	2
60	CHAIR	3.810	37.8%	9
61	ROUTE	3.810	36.9%	6
62	STEAM	3.816	36.3%	8
63	REATE	3.818	36.8%	2
64	ARETE	3.822	37.2%	3
65	EARLY	3.822	36.8%	7
66	BROTH	3.826	35.4%	12
67	AUDIT	3.829	37.5%	7
68	PIANO	3.830	37.1%	10
69	ADIOS	3.831	35.9%	1
70	MEDIA	3.843	34.8%	14
71	MOUSE	3.846	36.0%	11
72	HOUSE	3.857	35.8%	7
73	SAREE	3.860	35.8%	0
74	TEATS	3.874	33.9%	1
75	PIOUS	3.890	33.4%	10
76	FLING	3.924	31.7%	30
77	ADIEU	3.927	32.3%	4
78	AUDIO	3.930	33.6%	3
79	OUIJA	4.101	25.0%	5
80	SQUIZ	4.184	21.1%	2
81	QUAWK	4.185	19.8%	11
82	JUJUS	4.353	13.9%	1
83	JAZZY	4.377	13.4%	6
84	ZHUZH	4.388	13.6%	4
85	JEEZE	4.435	13.0%	3
86	XYLYL	4.445	13.7%	4
87	QAJAQ	4.501	9.7%	1

"Alone fastest" counts the past answers where that opener beat every other opener in this table outright. It's now measured against 86 rivals, so most numbers are lower than in my last post.

TrackVol's predictions, checked:

• QAJAQ is the worst opener in the table. 4.501 guesses a game, last of 87. It solves in three or fewer only 9.7% of the time, and it lost 4 games (BOOBY, DANDY, DOPEY, ULCER). XYLYL (4.445) and JEEZE (4.435) are next, and JAZZY, ZHUZH and JUJUS sit just above them.
• SQUIZ and QUAWK are the best of the bad words. They're the only two of the eight without a repeated letter, and they finish 80th and 81st, a hair apart at 4.184 and 4.185. Five different letters still buy you something, even when they're Q, U and Z. QUAWK is also a gambler: it beat every other opener outright on 11 answers.
• SLART beats CLASP easily. 7th overall at 3.697, level with TEARS. CLASP is 29th at 3.726. SLART is the best opener in the table with only one vowel.
• The two-E words all beat ADIEU. TERSE (55th), SLEET (59th), REATE (63rd), ARETE (64th) and SAREE (73rd) all finish ahead of ADIEU (77th), AUDIO (78th) and OUIJA (79th). Even SAREE is 0.07 guesses a game better than ADIEU.

The #1 picks from Scoredle, WordleBot and Wordle Tools are all in the table now. Ranked by this bot:

Rank	Opener	Avg guesses
1	SLATE	3.665
2	LEAST	3.671
3	SALET	3.672
6	TARSE	3.692
7	SLART	3.697
9	TRACE	3.701
12	CRANE	3.709
13	DEALT	3.712
15	PLATE	3.714
16	TARPS	3.715
21	CARLE	3.720
24	TARES	3.723
26	TROPE	3.724
29	CLASP	3.726
30	SANER	3.727
38	PLACE	3.738
50	SOARE	3.771

A few other things stood out:

• Every tool's #1 is a good opener here. 16 of the 17 finish in the top 40, all within 0.08 guesses of SLATE. The rankings differ because each tool scores the first guess its own way, and the gaps at the top are tiny.
• DEALT is the sleeper. 13th at 3.712, and it beat every other opener outright on 10 answers, more than any opener in the top 60.
• TARSE beats TARES. Same five letters, but TARSE is 6th and TARES is 24th. TARES also lost 2 games (BAKER, QUEER), the most of any reader suggestion outside the bad words.
• SOARE is the odd one out. 50th, and it never beat every other opener outright on a single answer.

Losses: QAJAQ 4, ZHUZH 5, JEEZE 5, JAZZY 6, XYLYL 3, SQUIZ 3, QUAWK 2, TARES 2, and SLART, TERSE, SLEET, REATE, ARETE, SAREE and JUJUS 1 each, out of 1,898 games. DEALT, TROPE, PLACE and TARPS never lost.

Where the suggestions came from:

• All 47 openers ranked, from SLATE to OUIJA: the comments here gave me the first 21 reader openers, and TrackVol's CARLE.
• Your 21 suggested openers, ranked alongside the 47: the results for those 21.

Same disclosure as before: I build the solver used here.