These 10 Wordle words ruined mornings and shattered streaks — did you survive them?

You would remember the Wordle craze that took over during the COVID pandemic. For many, it was an intense competition: Crack the wretched word before the sixth try. For others, it was almost a family tradition; I personally remember sitting with my cousins in silence at midnight as that was when the new wordle dropped. For the next few minutes, it would be a battle to figure out the word: You would just hear annoyed sighs and grunts. And oh my, the irritation that would spew, if a letter was repeated.

And, one particular word that didn’t break just us, but seems like the whole internet, was viola. You just had to be there, to witness the collective meltdown on the internet. People were frantically googling the meaning too, in case there was a slight chance we were being messed with.

For the unversed, here's what Wordle is:

Players have six attempts to guess a hidden five-letter word. After each guess, the game provides feedback by highlighting letters:

So, in the spirit of shared trauma and streak losses, here’s a list of the most dreaded Wordle words ever. Did any of these ruin your morning?

We did a little research and found what really left people hassled, with stats from Word Raiders and Tom’s Guide.

Introduced as the Wordle solution on September 16, 2022, PARER proved to be one of the game’s trickiest words. With a 48% failure rate, nearly half of all players were unable to guess it correctly—making it one of the most frustrating entries to date. In fact, it broke over 60% of active Wordle streaks that day.

The word follows a rare “P_ _ ER” structure, of which there are just 10 possible solutions. Even if players managed to narrow it down to “P_RER,” the more familiar word “PURER” often misled them, leaving PARER as an unexpected curveball.

(Bragging rights, I cracked this one!)

On April 19, 2022, FOYER stumped tens of thousands of Wordle players. The word had a 26% failure rate, meaning more than 1 in 4 couldn’t crack it within six tries. In fact, it ended the Wordle streaks of over 30,000 users on that day alone.

Part of the challenge lies in the “F _ _ ER” structure, which still leaves 10 valid options even when players narrow it down. To make things trickier, the unusual placement of the letter “Y” in the middle—shared by 29 other solutions—added another layer of difficulty.

JOKER was the Wordle solution on April 25, 2023, and it proved to be a tough puzzle for many. With an average solve rate of 5.69 guesses, nearly 1 in 5 players (19%) failed to crack it within six attempts. A significant number needed all their chances, 26 per cent solved it in 5 tries, while 29 per cent only got it on their final guess.

Part of the challenge comes from the word’s structure. The pattern “_O_ER” appears in 25 other Wordle answers, making JOKER more of a lucky guess than a logical deduction for many players.

PIPER proved tricky due to its repeated "P"—a detail that often tripped up even experienced players. Even after identifying the other letters, players were left with a long list of possible alternatives, including LIVER, RIVER, MILER, DIVER, RIPER, VIPER, WIPER, and PILER, making the final guess a frustrating toss-up.

JOLLY (Wordle # 1037)

For a word that is meant to signify amiability, this attempt was far from anything jolly. Not only did it contain a double letter, but it also started with the rarely used “J”—a letter that appears at the beginning of only 20 official Wordle solutions. Even players who reached “_OLLY” were faced with a minefield of options like HOLLY, FOLLY, GOLLY, LOLLY, and DOLLY. As a result, 29% of players couldn't solve it within six tries.

Going through Reddit, users have shared their ‘worst’ nightmares of words that have been used in Wordle, and might just be used in the future.

Here’s a list of words that send a shiver down Wordle players’ spines:

Each one has either repeated letters, uncommon spellings, or too many confusing alternatives—making them nightmare fuel for streak chasers.