3-letter Wordle solver

Type each 3-letter guess you played and press Add, then tap every tile until it matches your game: grey, yellow or green. The solver checks all 972 3-letter words in our dictionary, lists the ones that still fit with everyday words first, and suggests your best next guess.

110 possible words

Best next guess

Words that split the remaining answers into the most groups. Try one of these, or any word from the lists above.

Worked example

The solver above opens with a sample game. The hidden word is FOX and we played TEA then ION, the top 3-letter starter and the best follow-up that shares no letters with it.

Guess	Colours	Words left	Top of the list
tea	tea	384	FOR, HIS, WHO, HIM, WON
ion	ion	110	FOR, YOU, HOW, LOW, GOD

TEA scored 0 green, 0 yellow and 3 grey, which cut 972 words to 384.

ION tested 3 new letters and left 110 words.

The best next guesses are BUS, WHY, DRY, SKY, which split the remaining 110 words into the most colour groups.

Best 3-letter starting words

These common 3-letter words cover the letters that show up most often in 3-letter words. Start with the first, then follow with a word that uses none of its letters, such as ION.

Most useful letters in 3-letter words

Letter	Share of common 3-letter words that contain it
A	34%
E	26%
O	22%
I	19%
T	16%
S	15%
N	14%
R	14%

How the 3-letter Wordle solver works

Three-letter Wordle games are quick but tricky, because short words share so many letters. Changing one letter often gives another valid word, so the colours have to do more of the work.

Type a guess exactly as you played it and press Add, then tap each tile until it shows the same colour as your game: grey (not in the word), yellow (in the word, wrong spot) or green (right spot). The list updates straight away. If your game uses other colours, map them: Lingle, for example, marks the right spot in purple and the wrong spot in gold.

What the solver checks

Our dictionary has 972 3-letter words, and 657 of them are common in everyday English. For each word, the solver works out the colours your guesses would have shown if that word were the answer, with the same rules the game uses, and keeps only the words that match every row. Common words come first and rare ones are shown faded, since daily games rarely pick obscure answers.

Repeated letters

10% of common 3-letter words use a letter more than once, for example ALL, DID, OFF. The game colours copies one at a time: greens first, then yellows from left to right, and any extra copy turns grey. The solver replays exactly that, so a grey second copy correctly means "no more of this letter" rather than "not in the word".

Short-word quirks

14 common 3-letter words have no A, E, I, O or U, such as WHY, TRY, DRY, SKY. Words built on Y are far more common at this length than in longer games, so a row of grey vowels does not mean you entered something wrong: try a Y next.

Strategy

Three-letter lists often end with a family like _AT, _IT or _OG. Rather than guessing members one by one, play a word that tests two or three of the possible first letters together.

Our word list is the public-domain ENABLE list (172,823 words). It is close to, but not the same as, the lists that 3-letter Wordle games use, so the solver may list a word your game rejects, or miss a newer word it accepts.

Other word lengths

Frequently asked questions

What is the best first word for 3-letter Wordle?

By letter coverage across common 3-letter words, TEA scores highest, followed by EAT, ATE, ETA. A good second word with no shared letters is ION.

How many 3-letter words are there?

Our dictionary lists 972 3-letter words, of which 657 are common. You can browse them all on the 3-letter words page.

Why does the solver show no words?

A tile is probably set to the wrong colour. Check letters you typed twice: the second copy can be grey even when the letter is in the word. Also make sure each guess has exactly 3 letters.

Which games does it work with?

Any game that uses 3-letter words and Wordle-style feedback (right spot, wrong spot, not in word), whatever the colours. For the classic five-letter game, use the Wordle solver.