Infinite Wordplay › 4 Letter Words
4 Letter Words
Our dictionary has 4,209 four-letter words. 1,396 of them are common enough to be the answer in our daily 4-letter puzzle; the rest are accepted as guesses. Below you will find the most common ones, lists by first and last letter, and how often each letter turns up in each spot.
The most common letter is A: it appears in 35% of all four-letter words, ahead of E (34%) and S (33%). More words start with S than with any other letter (381), and the most common last letter is S (858 words, many of them plurals). S also starts the most common words, while E is their most common last letter. A four-letter word has 1.4 vowels on average, and 21% repeat a letter.
Search all 4,209 four-letter words
Type letters to filter as you go. Repeat a letter (EE) to ask for two of it.
The 120 most common 4-letter words
In order of how often they appear in everyday English.
- that
- with
- this
- have
- from
- your
- they
- will
- just
- like
- what
- when
- more
- time
- some
- also
- them
- than
- good
- only
- into
- know
- make
- over
- then
- back
- want
- well
- said
- most
- much
- very
- even
- here
- need
- work
- year
- made
- take
- many
- life
- down
- last
- best
- such
- love
- home
- long
- look
- same
- both
- come
- part
- find
- help
- high
- game
- give
- next
- each
- must
- show
- feel
- sure
- team
- ever
- keep
- free
- away
- left
- city
- name
- play
- real
- care
- week
- case
- full
- live
- read
- four
- hard
- mean
- once
- tell
- stop
- call
- head
- side
- less
- line
- open
- area
- face
- five
- kind
- hope
- able
- book
- post
- talk
- fact
- half
- hand
- mind
- body
- food
- true
- lost
- room
- else
- girl
- nice
- yeah
- idea
- past
- move
- wait
- late
- stay
For a Wordle-style game with four letters, our best everyday first guess is TALE: after it, about 100.7 of the 1,386 possible answers are left on average. A good second guess is MORN, which shares no letter with it. Stuck on a real puzzle? The word finder takes your green, yellow and gray letters and puts the likely answers first.
4-letter words by first letter
4-letter words by last letter
Letters in 4-letter words
How many four-letter words contain each letter, how many start or end with it, and the spot where it turns up most.
| Letter | Words | Share | First | Last | Most common spot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1,478 | 35% | 212 | 227 | Second |
| E | 1,430 | 34% | 122 | 538 | Second |
| S | 1,376 | 33% | 381 | 858 | Fourth |
| O | 1,147 | 27% | 115 | 142 | Second |
| I | 937 | 22% | 69 | 99 | Second |
| R | 886 | 21% | 191 | 136 | Third |
| L | 844 | 20% | 213 | 208 | Third |
| T | 843 | 20% | 265 | 353 | Fourth |
| N | 726 | 17% | 111 | 201 | Third |
| U | 647 | 15% | 42 | 38 | Second |
| D | 617 | 15% | 248 | 221 | First |
| P | 571 | 14% | 277 | 140 | First |
| M | 544 | 13% | 237 | 115 | First |
| C | 489 | 12% | 259 | 33 | First |
| H | 481 | 11% | 200 | 119 | First |
| G | 448 | 11% | 204 | 111 | First |
| B | 446 | 11% | 270 | 61 | First |
| K | 433 | 10% | 130 | 198 | Fourth |
| Y | 433 | 10% | 77 | 208 | Fourth |
| W | 358 | 8.5% | 169 | 58 | First |
| F | 333 | 7.9% | 199 | 87 | First |
| V | 162 | 3.8% | 78 | 8 | First |
| J | 104 | 2.5% | 90 | 4 | First |
| Z | 90 | 2.1% | 33 | 22 | Third |
| X | 66 | 1.6% | 1 | 23 | Third |
| Q | 19 | 0.5% | 16 | 1 | First |
Frequently asked questions
How many four-letter words are there?
Our American English dictionary accepts 4,209 four-letter words. 1,396 of them are common everyday words, and those are the possible answers in our daily 4-letter puzzle. The rest, such as plurals and rare words, count as guesses.
What is the most common four-letter word?
Going by how often words appear in everyday English, that, then with, this and have. The list above has the 120 most common ones in order.
Which letter do most four-letter words start with?
S: 381 words, 9.1% of the total. The rarest first letter is X, with 1 word.
What is the best first guess with four letters?
Among everyday words, TALE: after it, about 100.7 of the 1,386 possible daily answers are left on average. SALE and TEAL come close. The how to play page explains how we measured it.