Thank you for the clarifications! So, (assuming I now have the correct Dordle word list) I can adapt a winning strategy that I have developed for Wordle. For Wordle, there are 261 three-word starting sets that allow the player (if s/he is diligent) to guarantee a win by move 5. One of those is BLAST + MIDGE + PORCH . I can now check that this starting set also works for Dordle, but only by modifying the specifics. So here it is for Dordle:
A player can guarantee a win for Dordle (by the 7th entered word) as follows. Start with BLAST + MIDGE + PORCH. Then, based on the resulting set of colored tiles, in each half of the display, the player should simply enter a Dordle word that is consistent with the clues, with the following exceptions:
1. If, based on the colored tiles in the top 3 rows, the hidden word could be one of the following 35 words, play it next:
allow, assay, awake, awash, awful, crown, dowdy, drone, eater, enjoy, enter, fatty, fever, finer, folly, funky, goner, jawed, kneed, lefty, newly, otter, relax, sally, seize, sever, skate, skier, skulk, snipe, testy, tower, value, viper, wafer
2. If instead the hidden word could be the first element of one of these 20 pairs, play the second word:
[anger, wagon], [catch, clown], [cinch, awful], [crane, anvil], [dizzy, dozen], [fatal, awful], [field, awful], [fifty, flank], [fight, flown], [focal, fever], [forth, awful], [foyer, gawky], [fudge, fauna], [jaunt, jetty], [liner, anvil], [lower, anvil], [major, agony], [snoop, flown], [staff, bonus], [stoke, ankle]
Then, if the word entered does not solve that half of Dordle, then there is a unique Dordle word that will match the clues; enter it and win that half.
Following this recipe in each half of Dordle will take at most 3 + 2 + 2 moves, so the player is guaranteed a win.
(I have phrased these two rules using only words that are common to both Dordle and Wordle, except the unavoidable use of "jawed".)
I don't claim this particular algorithm is optimal in any way; this starting triple "works better" than any of the 260 others for Wordle, but I didn't look to see what other starting triples even exist for Dordle, to say nothing of which is best.
dave