Wordle Colors Explained — What Green, Yellow, and Gray Mean

Wordle uses three colors to communicate information about your guesses. Each color conveys precise information about letter placement, and the optimal strategy for using each type of information is different.

What Green Means

A green tile means the letter is correct and in the correct position. It is a confirmed fact. Use this information to anchor your next guess around that letter in that position. If you have the letter E in position 3 confirmed green, every subsequent guess must include E in position 3. Do not change what you know is right.

What Yellow Means

A yellow tile means the letter appears in the word but not in that position. It contains two pieces of information: the letter is in the answer, AND it is not in the position where you played it. Your next guess must include this letter but in a different position. Players often remember only the first fact and forget the second, leading to wasted guesses.

What Gray Means

A gray tile means the letter does not appear in the word at all. Never play a gray letter again. This sounds obvious but remains the most common Wordle mistake. Tracking your gray letters (mentally or in the letter grid below the board) is essential.

Hard Mode Rules

In Hard Mode, you must use all revealed information in subsequent guesses. Green letters must stay in their positions. Yellow letters must appear somewhere in your next guess. Gray letters are still not required to be avoided (a oversight in the Hard Mode implementation), but strategic play avoids them anyway.