Most Common Letters in 5 Letter Words (and Where They Appear)

Every good Wordle guess is really a bet on letters. The more common the letters in your guess, the more likely you are to see green and yellow tiles. But “common” has two parts: how often a letter appears in five-letter words at all, and where in the word it tends to sit. We analysed the 2,120 words in our list that are most likely to be Wordle answers to find out both.

The most common letters overall

This chart shows the share of likely answers that contain each letter at least once:

E appears in about 45% of likely answers, A in 39% and R in 36%. O, T, I, S, L and N follow closely. Together, these nine letters make up the backbone of almost every strong opening guess.

The rarest letters are just as useful to know. Q, J, X and Z each appear in fewer than 2% of likely answers, so there is little point testing them early unless your other clues point that way.

The most common letter in each position

Knowing that a letter is common is only half the story. In Wordle, a letter in the right spot turns green, and some letters strongly prefer certain spots. Here are the most common letters for each of the five positions in likely answers:

What the positions tell you

• The first letter is usually a consonant. S leads by a wide margin, followed by C, B, T and P. That is why so many strong openers start with S or C. Browse 5 letter words starting with S or starting with C.
• The middle is where vowels live. Positions two and three are dominated by O, A, I and E. If you have a yellow vowel, try it in the second or third spot first.
• The fourth letter is mixed, with E, N, S and C all common. Think of endings such as -NCE, -NSE and -ECT.
• The last letter is usually E or Y. Together they end more than a third of likely answers. See 5 letter words ending with E and ending with Y.

Why S is common at the start but not the end

Here is a surprise in the data. In the full dictionary, S is by far the most common last letter: almost a third of all five-letter words end in S, because so many are plurals. But in likely Wordle answers, S barely appears in the last position, because Wordle rarely uses simple plurals as answers.

At the start of a word the opposite is true: S is the single most common first letter. So if you are placing an S from a yellow tile, try the front of the word before the back.

Turning letter frequency into better guesses

1. Open with five different common letters. A guess that uses E, A, R and two of T, S, L, N or O tests the most likely letters at once. Based on these frequencies, the strongest openers in our list include AROSE, ALERT and ATONE.
2. Put letters in their favourite spots. An opener with S first, a vowel second or third, and E or Y last can earn greens as well as yellows.
3. Use guess two for the next tier. If your opener used E, A, R, S and T, a second guess with O, I, L, N and C covers most of the remaining common letters.
4. Leave rare letters for later. Only test J, Q, X, Z or V when the remaining words point that way.

For more on openers, see our guide to the best Wordle starting words. For the bigger picture, read how many 5 letter words there are.

Explore the words

These are the likely answers starting with S, the most common first letter. Tap Sort to order them by Scrabble score: