How to play Vowelkit
The rules, a simple solving strategy, and the best opening words based on all 869 possible answers.
The rules
- Guess the hidden five-letter word in six tries or fewer.
- Each guess must be a real English word. Type it and press Enter.
- After each guess the tiles change colour: green means the letter is in the right spot, yellow means it is in the word but in another spot, and grey means it is not in the word.
- A letter only lights up as many times as it appears in the answer. Guess speed when the answer has one E, and only one of your E tiles will be yellow or green.
The best starting words
A good first guess uses five different, common letters. We tested every answer with five different letters as an opening word against all 869 answers and counted how many tiles it lights up on average. The best opener, irate, reveals 1.94 green or yellow tiles on average. For the top 25, greens and the best two-word openings, see the full starting words analysis.
| Rank | Word | Avg. tiles revealed | Avg. greens |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | irate | 1.94 | 0.60 |
| 2 | stare | 1.93 | 0.66 |
| 3 | alert | 1.90 | 0.44 |
| 4 | alter | 1.90 | 0.44 |
| 5 | later | 1.90 | 0.43 |
| 6 | arose | 1.89 | 0.64 |
| 7 | arise | 1.89 | 0.65 |
| 8 | raise | 1.89 | 0.59 |
| 9 | laser | 1.86 | 0.41 |
| 10 | heart | 1.85 | 0.48 |
Which letters show up most
Share of answers that contain each letter at least once:
- e 50%
- r 41%
- a 41%
- t 33%
- o 29%
- i 29%
- s 28%
- l 26%
- n 24%
- h 20%
The rarest letters are j (1%), x (1%), z (1%), q (1%), v (6%). Save them for when the other clues point to them.
A simple solving strategy
- Open with a strong word from the table above to find the common letters quickly.
- Use a second word with five new letters if your first guess found fewer than two. Together the two guesses cover ten letters.
- Place the yellows. A yellow letter cannot be where you put it, so try it in a new position.
- Think about patterns, such as common endings (-ER, -LY, -CH) and double letters, which many players forget.
- Keep a guess in reserve. If several words still fit, choose a guess that tells them apart instead of trying them one by one.
Daily, unlimited and hard mode
The daily puzzle is the same for everyone and counts toward your streak and the leaderboard. Unlimited mode lets you play as many words as you like and challenge friends on the word you just played. You can also play with 3 to 8 letter words, an easy kids mode or your own custom puzzle. Hard mode, in settings, makes every revealed letter mandatory in later guesses and is worth 1.5 times the XP.
How scoring works
- A solve earns 50 XP, plus 15 XP for every guess you did not need.
- The daily puzzle adds 25 XP and up to 50 XP for your streak.
- Hard mode multiplies the round's XP by 1.5. Each hint reduces it by a quarter.
- On the daily leaderboard, fewer guesses rank higher, each hint counts as a guess, and the faster solve wins a tie. The weekly board awards 6 points for a first-guess solve down to 1 point for a last-guess solve.