What's the best starting word to use in Wordle to give yourself the biggest advantage?

There is no single universally agreed upon best starting word, but based on letter frequency analysis and information theory, a few words consistently rank at the top. "Crane" is widely recommended because it contains five of the most common letters in English words, covering C, R, A, N, and E. Similarly, "slate," "trace," "crate," and "raise" are popular choices because they hit high-frequency vowels and consonants that appear in a large portion of possible Wordle answers. Mathematician and YouTuber Grant Sanderson, known as 3Blue1Brown, used information theory to calculate that "crane" and "slane" (not a real word) score extremely well, while "salet" came out on top in some analyses. The goal is to maximize the information you gain from the first guess by choosing letters that are statistically most likely to appear in the answer, which helps you eliminate or confirm as many possibilities as possible right away. Ultimately the best opening word depends slightly on your strategy. If you want to play more aggressively and narrow things down fast, words like "raise" or "crane" are excellent. Some players prefer starting with two complementary words like "crane" followed by "stomp" to cover a wide range of letters before making a real attempt. Any word that combines common vowels like A, E, and I with frequent consonants like R, S, T, L, and N will give you a strong start.