The short rule

Wordle checks a guess in two passes. First it marks letters that are already in the correct spots green. Then it checks the remaining letters from left to right and marks them yellow only if an unused copy of that letter is still available in the answer. Everything else goes gray.

That last step matters. A gray second E does not always mean there is no E anywhere in the answer. It may mean the only E has already been used by a green or yellow tile.

Three examples with the actual colors

These are demonstration words, not today's Wordle answer. Each row is calculated using the same two-pass letter-counting rule as the solver, so you can trace exactly where a copy gets used.

1. Three E guesses, only two E letters

Suppose the answer is SHEEP and you guess EERIE:

The answer contains two E letters. The first two E guesses are yellow, and the third E is gray. That gray tile does not erase the information from the two yellows; it tells you that there is no third E.

2. One green L, one yellow L

Suppose the answer is LLAMA and you guess ALLEY:

The second tile is a green L. The third tile is a yellow L because another L belongs somewhere else. The A is yellow too; E and Y are gray.

3. What three E copies look like

Suppose the answer is PEEVE and you guess EERIE:

Here all three E tiles receive color because the answer really has three E letters. The second and fifth tiles are green, and the first E is yellow.

How many copies does an answer contain?

Read all occurrences of the same letter within one guess, not just the first colored tile you notice. If two E tiles are yellow or green, the answer has at least two E letters. If a third E is gray in that same guess, and the other two are colored, then the answer has exactly two copies of E.

Two yellow L tiles mean at least two L letters, but neither yellow L is already in its correct position. A green L and a yellow L also establish at least two copies, including the green one.

When a guess contains only one E and it comes back yellow, you know the answer has at least one E. You do not yet know whether there is a second E. Don't rule out a repeat just because you saw one yellow.

Three common mistakes

  1. Removing every gray letter unconditionally. Check whether a different copy of the same letter was green or yellow in that guess.
  2. Counting colored tiles from different guesses as separate copies. One yellow E on guess one and one green E on guess two could still be the same single E. Apply the count separately to each row.
  3. Keeping a yellow letter in its old position. Yellow rules out that position even if the answer has another copy somewhere else.

Let the Wordle solver handle duplicates

Enter your guesses and click the tiles until their colors match your game. The WordHintHub solver compares each candidate against every row, including how many copies of a letter can be green or yellow. It doesn't simply discard every gray letter.

For a full introduction to the colors and six-guess rule, visit How to play Wordle. If you want a daily nudge rather than a list of possible words, try today's hints; the answer stays covered until you decide to reveal it.

How these examples were checked

The tile colors are calculated with the same function that filters the solver's candidate words: greens first, then yellows up to the remaining letter counts. These are educational examples only; we don't claim they were played by a real user.