Pattern Solver

Pattern matching is the right tool whenever position is known but identity is not — which is the normal state of a half-finished crossword or a Wordle in progress. Knowing that a five-letter word has R in position two and E in position five narrows a dictionary of thousands to a handful, and that narrowing is the entire game. Each confirmed letter typically cuts the candidate set by an order of magnitude.

The efficient approach is to enter every constraint you actually have rather than solving in stages. Underspecifying produces a long list you then have to read; a fully specified pattern usually returns a set small enough to eyeball. If the result comes back empty, one of your assumed letters is wrong — which is itself useful information, and often faster to discover here than by staring at the grid.

For Wordle specifically, remember the tool only handles the green letters. Yellow letters — present but in the wrong position — and grey exclusions are separate constraints it cannot express, so filter the results by hand: discard any candidate lacking a known-present letter, or placing it where you already know it does not go. Doing that against a short list is quick, and it is what turns a pattern match into an actual answer.