5-letter words for Wordle
Search the complete Wordle dictionary — 14,855 valid guesses — by pattern, position, and letters. Results update as you type.
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How to use this for Wordle strategy
This explorer mirrors how strong players actually think. After two or three guesses you rarely need "a word" — you need a word that starts with ST, ends in E, contains R, and avoids the four letters you've already eliminated. Type those constraints above and the valid candidates appear instantly.
The pattern field is the most powerful filter. If Wordle shows you a green A in position two and a yellow E you know belongs in position four, enter _A_E_ and you'll see every word in the dictionary that fits — the same set thesolvercomputes from your tile colors, but under your direct control.
It also doubles as a starting-word laboratory. The five most common letters across all past answers are E, A, R, O, T — filter for words containing three of them and you'll surface openers in the same class as our data-ranked starters.
Most common starting and ending letters
Counted across all 1,864 official Wordle answers — the real distribution, not generic English text frequency.
Starts with
| 1 | S | 276 answers |
| 2 | C | 165 answers |
| 3 | B | 143 answers |
| 4 | T | 124 answers |
| 5 | A | 122 answers |
Ends with
| 1 | E | 367 answers |
| 2 | Y | 259 answers |
| 3 | T | 210 answers |
| 4 | R | 157 answers |
| 5 | L | 133 answers |
S leads starting letters by a wide margin, while E dominates the final slot — which is exactly why the best openers tend to start with S and end with E.
Popular patterns, real counts
How many dictionary words match the patterns players search for most:
| Words ending in -IGHT | 15 words |
| Words ending in -OUND | 9 words |
| Words starting with ST | 191 words |
| Words starting with CR | 119 words |
| Words containing Q | 143 words |
| Words with a double letter pattern available | 5,490 words |
Notice how small the -IGHT and -OUND sets are — when a board narrows to one of those patterns, guessing a word that probes the possible first letters at once solves it faster than trying each candidate.
Frequently asked questions
How many 5-letter words does Wordle accept?
Wordle's guess dictionary contains about 14,855 valid five-letter words — everything this explorer searches. Answers are drawn from a much smaller, hand-picked list of common words; 1,863 of them have been used so far, and repeats are extremely rare.
How do I use the pattern field?
Type five characters using an underscore for any unknown letter. For example, _A_E_ finds every word with A second and E fourth — like BAKER, CADET, or WAVER. Combine it with the other filters to narrow results further.
What are the best 5-letter words to start Wordle with?
Words packed with common letters in common positions — our data ranks SOARE, SAINE, and SLATE at the top. See the full ranked list on our starting words guide, or use this explorer to find openers matching your own style.
Can a past Wordle answer come up again?
Almost never. The New York Times has repeated only a handful of answers since 2021, which means nearly every word in our archive is effectively eliminated. If a word here looks promising, check the archive first — it has very likely already been used.
Working on today's puzzle? Get spoiler-free hints, narrow candidates with the solver, or check whether a word has already appeared in theanswer archive.