Tricky Endings and Word Traps: -IGHT, -OUND, _ATCH and Friends
Every Wordle junkie knows this feeling. It's guess three, you've got four green letters, and you're sure you'll finish next turn. Then you guess, and it's wrong. And the next one is wrong too. Welcome to the word trap: a family of words that share four letters and differ only in one.
What makes a trap
A trap happens when several real words fit the same pattern with one letter missing. Each guess can only rule out one of them unless you change your approach, so a family of six or seven words can eat up every guess you have left.
To see how common this is, I went through the original Wordle answer list (the 2,315 words built into the game at launch) and grouped words that are identical except for one letter in the same position. Here are the biggest families I found.
The biggest families in the list
-IGHT (9 words)
EIGHT, FIGHT, LIGHT, MIGHT, NIGHT, RIGHT, SIGHT, TIGHT, WIGHT. This is the largest family in the whole list. Once you have _IGHT in green, you're choosing among nine first letters.
-OUND (8 words)
BOUND, FOUND, HOUND, MOUND, POUND, ROUND, SOUND, WOUND.
_ATCH and _OWER (7 words each)
BATCH, CATCH, HATCH, LATCH, MATCH, PATCH, WATCH. And COWER, LOWER, MOWER, POWER, ROWER, SOWER, TOWER.
SHA_E (7 words)
SHADE, SHAKE, SHALE, SHAME, SHAPE, SHARE, SHAVE. A good reminder that traps aren't only about the first letter. Here the missing letter is in the fourth spot.
Six-word families
- _ASTE: BASTE, CASTE, HASTE, PASTE, TASTE, WASTE
- _AUNT: DAUNT, GAUNT, HAUNT, JAUNT, TAUNT, VAUNT
- GRA_E: GRACE, GRADE, GRAPE, GRATE, GRAVE, GRAZE
- S_ORE: SCORE, SHORE, SNORE, SPORE, STORE, SWORE
- STA_E: STAGE, STAKE, STALE, STARE, STATE, STAVE
- _ATTY and _ILLY, which also have double letters to keep you on your toes
Five-word families
_EACH (BEACH, LEACH, PEACH, REACH, TEACH), _OUGH (BOUGH, COUGH, DOUGH, ROUGH, TOUGH) and _ROWN (BROWN, CROWN, DROWN, FROWN, GROWN), among others.
All told, 167 words in the list belong to at least one family of five or more. That's about one puzzle in fourteen with a real trap waiting.
How to escape a trap
Step 1: Spot it early
The moment you see a pattern like _IGHT, _OUND or _ATCH, stop. Don't fire off the first word that comes to mind. Instead, list every word that fits. Write them down if you can.
Step 2: Count your guesses
If you have more guesses left than candidates, you can relax and guess them one by one. If you have fewer, you need a smarter move.
Step 3: Use a "splitter" guess (normal mode)
A splitter is a word that tests several of the candidate letters at once, even if it can't possibly be the answer. Say you're stuck on _IGHT with three guesses left. FLAME doesn't end in -IGHT, but it tests F, L and M at once. A word like WORMS would test W, R, M and S together. Whatever lights up tells you which family member it is. If nothing lights up, you've cut the list down in one go.
This feels wasteful, but it's the single best trap-escaping tool there is. Sacrificing one guess to guarantee the answer on the next is better than gambling on four separate guesses.
Step 4: In Hard Mode, choose the most "connected" letter
In Hard Mode you can't use a splitter, because every guess must keep your green and yellow letters. The best you can do is pick the candidate that helps you most if it's wrong. Use your gray letters to cross off candidates, and think about which first letters are most common. My Hard Mode tips cover this in more detail.
Step 5: Don't forget doubles
Some families hide a repeated letter: TIGHT (two Ts), BATTY and SILLY, for example. If you've crossed off every single-letter option, check for a double. See my guide to double letters.
Avoiding traps before they start
The best way to beat a trap is to find the tricky letter early, before you've locked yourself into a pattern.
- Test common first letters early. S, C, B, T, P, M, L, H and W start many family words. If your first two guesses cover several of them, you'll often know the first letter before the pattern even appears.
- Don't rush to "solve" on guess two if you only have a vague idea. An exploring guess with five new letters, as I describe in my second-guess strategy, often heads off a trap before it forms.
- Recognize trap-prone endings: -IGHT, -OUND, -ATCH, -OWER, -ASTE, -AUNT, -ORE, -AKE, -ATE, -ASH, -ACK and -ILL all show up again and again.
Keep your sense of humor
Traps are part of what makes the game fun. Everybody gets caught by one sooner or later, and the story of how you escaped a _ATCH word in six makes for a much better group chat than another quick solve in three. With a little planning, you'll lose fewer streaks to them.