Are ADIEU and AUDIO your best options for high-vowel words? According to our bot, the answer is, “No!”
ADIEU and AUDIO: 2 Popular Wordle Openers
We’ve been paying attention to Wordle stats and have noticed that on any given day, the top opening word for Wordle players tends to be ADIEU. Nearly 10 percent of Wordle players open with ADIEU.
Another favorite is AUDIO. It’s often one of the top 3 or 4 opening words played by Wordle aficionados.
NOTE: Data pulled from monitoring the NYT online WordleBot.
ADIEU and AUDIO are both solid words to start your daily Wordle play. In fact, L+S’s bot-driven predictive model for Wordle rates both words as very good openers. Our bot can generally solve any Wordle puzzle with reasonable efficiency when opening with one of those words.
Vowel your way to victory!
Both ADIEU and AUDIO have 4 vowels, and for the typical player, getting an early handle on the vowels that are in play can be extremely helpful when sleuthing out a Wordle-solution.
But are ADIEU and AUDIO your best options for high-vowel words? According to our bot, the answer is, “No!”
Potentially better high-vowel options?
Okay, we get it, a favorite opening word can be hard to abandon. And that’s particularly true when your favorite opener delivers the goods on the vowels in play. Nevertheless, we couldn’t help but wonder what the best 4-vowel opening words might be. Are they really ADIEU and AUDIO, or are there better options out there?
We put the question to our bot, and it quickly came up with three words that outperform ADIEU and AUDIO. Here are our bot’s favorite, high-vowel openers:
- OURIE – Looks like it means either depressing or cold.
- AUREI – Ancient gold coins.
- LOUIE – Though it’s tough to tie down a definition, the Wordle app accepts it. Might be slang for an army lieutenant?
What’s so great about: OURIE, AUREI and LOUIE?
In general, our bot is significantly more efficient when opening with one of those three words than when opening with ADIEU or AUDIO. Not being a bot, I can only speculate about the reasons why. Here’s my best shot at it:
- LOUIE and OURIE both end in E
By our reckoning, about 500 likely Wordle-solutions end in “E.” That works out to about 1 in 6 likely solutions. On the other hand, only about 5 words end in “U” like ADIEU, and only about 90 words end in “O” like AUDIO. Having an “E” at the end of your opening word can be a good idea.
- R vs. D for an edge
But what about AUREI? Only about 22 other likely Wordle-solutions end in “I.” While that “I” may not give you an advantage, don’t forget about AUREI’s only consonant. Having an “R” to work with instead of a “D,” as in ADIEU or AUDIO, generally provides a significant Wordle-advantage. By our reckoning, “R” occurs about 1,100 times across the list of likely Wordle solution-words, while “D” only occurs about 480 times. (BTW: the “L” in LOUIE occurs about 850 times.)
There you have it: OURIE, AUREI and LOUIE are all great options when it comes to high-vowel openers. While our bot performs well with all three words, its performance with OURIE is slightly better than with the other two. That said, it can generally solve Wordle puzzles more effectively with any of those three openers than with ADIEU or AUDIO. If you’re an ADIEU or AUDIO fan, you might want to consider giving one of those other three words a spin.
BONUS: Consider opening with TARSE instead of STARE
Although STARE only has 2 vowels, based on what we’ve seen from the NY Times bot, it’s pretty much the second most popular opening word. While TARSE AND STARE have the same letters, somehow our bot is significantly more efficient when opening with TARSE. In fact, it’s our bot’s favorite opening word. Learn more about how our bot rates TARSE >
I’m not exactly sure why TARSE works so much better than STARE, but just like the bot, TARSE has become my favorite opening word. Somehow when I open with TARSE, things just seem to fall into place very quickly. If you ever feel like opening with something other than STARE, or one of the vowel-rich words, you might want to give TARSE a try.
So is it time to say “adieu” to ADIEU?
Bots don’t play the way we humans do. What works for our bot might not work so well for you. That said, it might be worth giving a new set of openers a try. If you’re an ADIEU, AUDIO or STARE fan, maybe it’s time to try something new.
