How to Play Pairdle
Overview
Pairdle is a daily word puzzle where the answer is a 6-letter word split into three letter-pairs. Your job is to figure out which pairs belong in which position—FIRST, MID, or LAST—within 6 guesses.
Think of it as “Word Sudoku”: you aren't typing letters one at a time. Instead, you select pairs from a grid and place them into three columns.
The Game Board
The board has three columns—FIRST, MID, and LAST. Each column has two slots where you can place a pair. You only need to fill one slot per column—the second slot gives you flexibility to try different arrangements.
Each column has two slots. Place a pair in either slot. The empty slot stays open for future guesses.
The Pair Grid
Below the game board you'll see a grid of 24 letter-pairs. Three of them form the secret word—the rest are decoys. Tap a pair to select it, then tap a column (FIRST, MID, or LAST) to place it.
Example pair grid with 24 pairs. The answer pairs (BA, RR, EN) are hiding among 21 decoys.
Color Feedback
After each guess, every pair you placed lights up with a color:
Strategic Tips
- Use position logic: Some pairs are overwhelmingly one column. When ED turns up in a Pairdle answer it is the LAST column 97% of the time — and TS 99%, ES 95%, ER 91%. Others only look that way: EN ends the word barely half the time (enable and encore both open with it), so treat it as a hint, not a rule. Up front, CO and BE are dependable starters at around 85–90%, while CH is close to a coin flip.
- Spot the unlikely: RR and MN never start a word — no six-letter word does. RR is always a middle pair (sorrow, barren, parrot), and MN is almost always an ending (column, autumn, solemn), though damned shows it can sit in the middle. Eliminating a column before you guess is worth as much as finding a pair.
- Go deeper: We counted the letter pairs in every Pairdle answer ever scheduled and broke them down column by column — the full tables, including which pairs can never appear where, are in How to Master Pairdle, Column by Column.
- Explore first: Your first guess should test which pairs are in the word, not try to spell a specific word. Think of it like an opening move in chess.
- Watch the grid: As pairs turn gray, the remaining options shrink fast. By guess 2 or 3 you can often deduce the answer purely from elimination.
Full Walkthrough: Solving BARREN
The secret word is BARREN (BA + RR + EN). Let's solve it step by step.
Guess 1
We start by exploring. Place CO in FIRST, EN in MID, and TS in LAST.
“CO and TS are gray—neither is in the word. But EN is orange! That means EN is in the word, just not in MID. It probably belongs in LAST. That's one pair found already.”
Guess 2
Move EN to LAST where it likely belongs. Try BE in FIRST and RR in MID.
“RR and EN both locked blue! The word is __RREN. BE is gray though—not the starter. Looking at what's left: BA, BI, HU, FI, SO, CH. BA would make BARREN!”
Guess 3
Place BA in FIRST. RR and EN are already locked blue.
“All blue! BARREN solved in 3 guesses. The orange EN in guess 1 was the key—it told us the pair was right but in the wrong spot.”