The first guess is the only one you make with no information, so its entire job is to produce information. A good opener is not a lucky word — it is a word that splits the remaining possibilities as evenly as it can.
Three properties, in order of how much they matter:
CRANE, SLATE and TRACE are frequent recommendations because each carries two vowels and three high-frequency consonants with no repeats, and puts them roughly where English tends to put them. ADIEU and AUDIO take the opposite bet: four vowels, maximum vowel information, but they leave most consonants untested, so a strong second guess matters more.
Vowel-heavy openers tend to produce more yellows, and yellows are weaker than greens. Knowing that the word contains A, I and E is less useful than it feels if you cannot place any of them. A balanced opener usually leaves you with a smaller candidate list after one guess than a vowel-stuffed one.
Less than the arguments about it suggest. Any sensible five-distinct-letter word with two vowels puts you in a reasonable position; what decides most games is guess two, where people waste a turn confirming what they already knew. No opener guarantees anything — the answer is chosen without regard to what anyone opens with.
Once you have your first row of colours, our strategy guide covers how to spend the rest, and today's progressive clues are there if you would rather have a nudge than a solution.
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