A pair of MIT researchers recently set out to find the optimal starting word for the popular online puzzle, discovering that the statistically superior first guess is SALET, which is a 15th century helmet.

Statistically, the best Wordle starting word is CANOE. But, if you want to try other 5 letter words that have similar statistical effectiveness, your choices are ROATE, CRANE, RAISE, and TRACE. Doesn’t hurt to give them all a shot at least once, right?

Based on our analysis, if you’re trying to win in as few guesses as possible, the top three words to go with are: SLICE TRIED CRANE Using any of these three words will produce an average number of word attempts of 3.90, 3.92, and 3.92, respectively, if you’re using an optimal strategy to play (more on that later).

The strategy for early guesses in Wordle can be gleaned from Scrabble 's lowest-scoring, and thus most used, letters - A, E, I, O, U, L, N, S, T, and R. Add in the two (D and G) and three (B, C, M, and P) scorers, and there are plenty of words that can be combined to whittle down the possibilities.