Infinite Wordplay › 5 Letter Words
5 Letter Words
Our dictionary has 9,032 five-letter words. 2,044 of them are common enough to be the answer in our daily 5-letter puzzle; the rest are accepted as guesses. Below you will find the most common ones, lists by first and last letter, by letter position and by letter pair, and how often each letter turns up in each spot.
The most common letter is S: it appears in 46% of all five-letter words, ahead of E (45%) and A (41%). More words start with S than with any other letter (1,079), and the most common last letter is S (2,792 words, many of them plurals). S also starts the most common words, while E is their most common last letter. A five-letter word has 1.8 vowels on average, and 35% repeat a letter.
Search all 9,032 five-letter words
Type letters to filter as you go. Repeat a letter (EE) to ask for two of it.
The 120 most common 5-letter words
In order of how often they appear in everyday English.
- about
- their
- there
- which
- would
- other
- first
- think
- these
- where
- right
- being
- still
- never
- those
- world
- great
- while
- every
- state
- three
- since
- under
- thing
- house
- place
- again
- found
- might
- money
- night
- until
- group
- start
- today
- point
- music
- power
- water
- small
- white
- order
- party
- thank
- black
- whole
- maybe
- story
- least
- early
- local
- video
- young
- court
- given
- level
- often
- south
- known
- large
- wrong
- along
- class
- close
- cause
- happy
- human
- woman
- leave
- north
- watch
- light
- short
- taken
- third
- among
- check
- heart
- child
- major
- media
- phone
- quite
- final
- front
- ready
- bring
- heard
- march
- study
- clear
- month
- board
- field
- fight
- force
- issue
- price
- space
- total
- above
- share
- sense
- break
- event
- sorry
- guess
- learn
- alone
- movie
- press
- worth
- sound
- value
- round
- stand
- stuff
- drive
- green
- match
For a Wordle-style game with five letters, our best everyday first guess is RAISE: after it, about 51.4 of the 2,022 possible answers are left on average. A good second guess is CLOUT, 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.
5-letter words by first letter
5-letter words by last letter
5-letter words by second letter
5-letter words by third letter
5-letter words by fourth letter
5-letter words with two given letters
The 100 letter pairs that come up most, each with at least 73 words.
Letters in 5-letter words
How many five-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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | 4,137 | 46% | 1,079 | 2,792 | Fifth |
| E | 4,029 | 45% | 202 | 967 | Fourth |
| A | 3,666 | 41% | 512 | 406 | Second |
| R | 2,771 | 31% | 438 | 541 | Third |
| O | 2,670 | 30% | 186 | 248 | Second |
| I | 2,544 | 28% | 129 | 166 | Second |
| L | 2,249 | 25% | 420 | 357 | Third |
| T | 2,177 | 24% | 576 | 493 | Fourth |
| N | 1,948 | 22% | 214 | 376 | Third |
| U | 1,656 | 18% | 119 | 27 | Second |
| D | 1,622 | 18% | 476 | 596 | Fifth |
| C | 1,429 | 16% | 696 | 102 | First |
| Y | 1,380 | 15% | 101 | 949 | Fifth |
| P | 1,338 | 15% | 600 | 124 | First |
| M | 1,282 | 14% | 469 | 127 | First |
| H | 1,199 | 13% | 347 | 264 | Second |
| G | 1,069 | 12% | 435 | 98 | First |
| B | 1,028 | 11% | 623 | 38 | First |
| K | 943 | 10% | 227 | 192 | Fourth |
| F | 713 | 7.9% | 444 | 55 | First |
| W | 697 | 7.7% | 307 | 39 | First |
| V | 477 | 5.3% | 171 | 3 | Third |
| Z | 226 | 2.5% | 54 | 20 | Third |
| X | 212 | 2.3% | 13 | 50 | Third |
| J | 181 | 2% | 138 | 0 | First |
| Q | 82 | 0.9% | 56 | 2 | First |
Frequently asked questions
How many five-letter words are there?
Our American English dictionary accepts 9,032 five-letter words. 2,044 of them are common everyday words, and those are the possible answers in our daily 5-letter puzzle. The rest, such as plurals and rare words, count as guesses.
What is the most common five-letter word?
Going by how often words appear in everyday English, about, then their, there and which. The list above has the 120 most common ones in order.
Which letter do most five-letter words start with?
S: 1,079 words, 12% of the total. The rarest first letter is X, with 13 words.
What is the best first guess with five letters?
Among everyday words, RAISE: after it, about 51.4 of the 2,022 possible daily answers are left on average. SLATE and STARE come close. The how to play page explains how we measured it.