14 of the Hardest Wordle Words to Guess

One of the great appeals for players of Wordle is how the game’s difficulty can vary greatly for each daily puzzle. In this article, we take a look at some of the worst Wordle words for players that have ever appeared from the game’s past solutions.

Each day, around 15% of players lose their streak due to failing to solve difficult Wordle words.
For example, the solution word PARER was seen to break the streaks of 60% of players.
A word with a similar pattern, FOYER, was also known to break around 30,000 players’ winning streaks.
Duplicate letters can increase a player’s chance of using all 6 guesses by around 10.00%.
Analyzing the game’s most notoriously difficult words, they often contain the same letter multiple times in a row, such as in JAZZY.
However, words that contain the same letter multiple times but not sequentially also feature, such as in RIPER.
Word similarity can raise the chance of using all 6 guesses by around 7.00%, shown through words like CATCH and MATCH which have 4 letters in common.
Words that score much higher in Scrabble or words that are more obscure can also have a smaller impact.
Furthermore, words that start with a “J” are shown to be harder to solve as just 20 Wordle solutions start with this letter.

What are hardest Wordle words to guess?

Wordle players of all skill levels and abilities can get stumped by any of the game’s 5-letter solutions. Unlike other word games, there is not one general rule that can determine the difficulty of a term for each person.

PARER (Wordle #454)

PARER was introduced as a Wordle solution on September 16, 2022.
Almost one in two players fail to solve this word as it has a 48% failure rate.
Furthermore, it broke 60% of World streaks on the day of its release.
There are 10 possible answers which use the “P_ _ ER” letter combination.
If the player manages to find “P_RER”, the other potential solution is PURER, which is a more recognized word than the solution.

FOYER (Wordle #304)

FOYER was the solution word on April 19, 2022.
Failure to find this word by the end of the 6th turn broke the Wordle streaks of 30,000 players.
It has a 26% failure rate, with over 1 in 4 players failing to find the solution within 6 attempts.
If the player can identify the combination “F _ _ ER”, 10 words will still be a potential answer.
Additionally, FOYER contains the letter “Y” in the middle spot, which is present in 29 different solutions.

RIPER (Wordle #613)

RIPER was the solution to Wordle on February 22, 2023.
On average, a player will solve this word using 5.52 turns.
Approximately 25% of players fail this puzzle, which is significantly higher than for other words.
Even Identifying the letter combination “R _ _ ER” will mean 12 words can still be a potential answer.

CATCH (Wordle #483)

CATCH was the Wordle answer on October 15, 2022.
This solution has a 23% failure rate.
There are 18 possible words that end in the combination “TCH”.
CATCH also uses the letter “C” two times, which increases its difficulty.
This is due to the letter “C” only making up 4.11% of Wordle letters.

JUDGE (Wordle #555)

JUDGE was the Wordle solution on December 26, 2022.
The average player solves this word using 5.57 turns.
Around 20% of players are unable to solve this word within 6 turns.
Just 20 Wordle solutions start with the letter “J”.
Finding the ending combination “DGE” will still leave 12 possible Wordle answers to choose from.

WATCH (Wordle #265)

WATCH was the answer to Wordle on March 11, 2022.
The word WATCH is seen to have a failure rate of 20%.
18 potential answers end in the letter combination “TCH”.
By identifying the combination “W_TCH”, players will still be forced to choose between WATCH or WITCH.

JOKER (Wordle #675)

JOKER was the solution to Wordle on April 25, 2023.
Players take 5.69 turns on average to solve this turn.
19% of players fail to solve this word within the allotted turns.
26% of players take 5 guesses and 29% take 6 guesses to solve JOKER.
Solving JOKER is based more on luck than on skill as it contains the common letter pattern “_O_ER” which is found in 25 solutions.

MUMMY (Wordle #491)

MUMMY was released as a Wordle answer on October 23, 2022.
18% of players fail to solve the word.
This word is particularly difficult to solve due to containing the letter “M” three times.
Due to this, players may spend a lot of time attempting to play incorrect letters.
It is one of only three Wordle solutions to contain this letter three times (the others being MAMMA and MAMMY).

CATER (Wordle #270)

CATER was the solution word to Wordle on March 16, 2022.
15% of players who attempt to solve this word fail.
If players can identify the ending letters “TER”, there will still be 16 possible solutions.
Of these 16 solutions, CATER is the only word beginning with “C”, making it harder to guess.

COYLY (Wordle #409)

COYLY was the Wordle solution on August 02, 2022.
Players who attempt to solve this word fail 15% of the time.
Just 8 words feature the letter “Y” two times, increasing the rarity of the word.
Of these, a total of only 6 words are possible when the letter “Y” is in the third and fifth position.

TRITE (Wordle #396)

TRITE was Wordle’s solution on July 20, 2022.
This solution is found to have a failure rate of 15%.
If the player can identify the word ending “ITE”, there are still 9 possible solutions to choose from.
This word is also more difficult for players due to containing the letter “T” twice.

FOUND (Wordle #282)

FOUND was the level solution for Wordle on March 28, 2022.
14% of players fail to solve this word.
This word is particularly difficult due to sharing 4 letters in sequence with 7 other words.
Unlucky players may identify the “OUND” ending, before needing luck to opt for FOUND instead of another letter that fits the sequence.

JAZZY (Wordle #712)

JAZZY was the solution word to Wordle on June 1, 2023.
On average, players take 5.82 turns to solve this word.
36% of players guess the word in 5 turns and 38% solve the word in their final turn.
However, 11% of players fail to solve the word in time.
It is an informal word that contains a “ZZ” combination that only exists in 5 possible words.

NANNY (Wordle #714)

NANNY was Wordle’s solution word on June 3, 2023.
On average, players solve this term in 5.68 turns.
This word is difficult due to containing the letter “N” three times, which is only used in 2 words, the other being NINNY.
82% of players take between 4-6 turns to solve NANNY.
However, 11% of players end in failure when trying to solve it.

What makes a Wordle word difficult to solve?

However, certain trends can still be identified that can determine the relative difficulty of a word. Here are some common factors that increase the chances of a player using all of their guesses to find a solution.

Factor	Chance of using 6 guesses (approx.)
Duplicate letters	+ 10.00%
Similarity to other words	+ 7.00%
Higher Scrabble score	+ 6.00%
Word obscurity	+ 1.00%

A graph is given below to show the chance of a player using all 6 guesses in Wordle by different factors: