How many 5-letter words are there in the English language?
There are 12,987 5-letter words in the English dictionary, all listed on this page. You can use 5-letter words for word games like Scrabble, Words With Friends, Wordle, and many others. The dictionary is constantly evolving, so make sure you keep track of any new additions to the list, which is continuously updated on this page.
If you want to become more familiar with the 5-letter words used in Wordle, it’s important to mention that Wordle has its own dictionary, which contains a significantly smaller portion of 5-letter words. If you want to see a complete list of Wordle words, you can check out our Wordle Words page.
Challenge: How long sentence can you make using only 5-letter words?
Here’s what WordsRated came up with: Frosty sheep drift along shady creeks, where birds build nests, green vines twist, and small boats float under azure skies.
That’s a 19-word sentence made using only 5-letter words. Can you do better? Let us know.
How common are 5-letter words in the English language?
13.0% of all words used daily in spoken and written English are 5-letter words, meaning that every 7th English word used during the day will be a 5-letter word. This makes 5-letter words the fourth most commonly used word group in English, right behind 4-letter words (18.1%), 2-letter words (15%), and 3-letter words (13.7%).
| Word length | Number of words | Frequency of use |
| 2-letter words | 127 | 15.00% |
| 3-letter words | 1349 | 13.70% |
| 4-letter words | 5641 | 18.10% |
| 5-letter words | 12987 | 13.00% |
| 6-letter words | 23051 | 10.70% |
| 7-letter words | 34370 | 9.90% |
| 8-letter words | 42182 | 7.60% |
| 9-letter words | 42972 | 4.80% |
| 10-letter words | 37807 | 3.30% |
| 11-letter words | 29663 | 2.00% |
| 12-letter words | 21577 | 1.00% |
| 13-letter words | 14764 | 0.60% |
| 14-letter words | 9703 | 0.20% |
| 15-letter words | 6134 | 0.10% |
However, since 5-letter words are far more numerous compared to 2, 3, and 4-letter words, this means that the average 5-letter word is used significantly less often compared to shorter words. For example, the average 5-letter word will appear only once on every 100,000 words used during the day.
How valuable are 5-letter words for word games?
Since Wordle operates exclusively with 5-letter words, there is no point in discussing the importance and value of 5-letter words for Wordle. However, if you want to get more familiar with all 5-letter words that can be accepted as Wordle answers, we have a page containing all Wordle words in one place.
As for other word games, most of all Scrabble and Words With Friends, the average 5-letter word is worth 9.19 points in Scrabble. Looking at per-letter value, the average 5-letter word can bring 1.84 points per letter.
| Length | Words | Average Scrabble value | Average value per letter |
| 2 | 127 | 4.1 | 2.07 |
| 3 | 1349 | 6.3 | 2.1 |
| 4 | 5641 | 7.7 | 1.91 |
| 5 | 12987 | 9.2 | 1.84 |
| 6 | 23051 | 10.5 | 1.75 |
| 7 | 34370 | 11.9 | 1.69 |
| 8 | 42182 | 13.3 | 1.66 |
| 9 | 42972 | 14.8 | 1.64 |
| 10 | 37807 | 16.2 | 1.62 |
| 11 | 29663 | 17.6 | 1.6 |
| 12 | 21577 | 19 | 1.58 |
| 13 | 14764 | 20.4 | 1.57 |
| 14 | 9703 | 21.7 | 1.55 |
| 15 | 6134 | 23 | 1.53 |
| 16 | 1943 | 24.4 | 1.53 |
| 17 | 1127 | 25.7 | 1.51 |
| 18 | 594 | 27.3 | 1.51 |
| 19 | 329 | 28.7 | 1.51 |
| 20 | 160 | 31.2 | 1.56 |
| 21 | 62 | 32.3 | 1.54 |
| 22 | 30 | 34.8 | 1.58 |
| 23 | 13 | 36.2 | 1.57 |
| 24 | 9 | 39.1 | 1.63 |
| 25 | 2 | 42.5 | 1.7 |
| 27 | 2 | 42.5 | 1.57 |
| 28 | 1 | 39 | 1.39 |
What are some of the most important 5-letter words for word games?
Regardless of which word game you’re playing, the chances are that you’ll already know at least one letter of the word you want to form, which will narrow down your choices. For example, many Wordle players often look for 5-letter words that start and end in a specific letter.
Among these words, the most popular are 5-letter words that start with A and end in E, then 5-letter words starting with E and ending in T or starting with S and ending in T.
Wordle players often struggle with 5-letter words with lots of vowels, as it’s hard to choose one among many potential options. That’s why the most-searched-for 5-letter words usually contain at least one vower – such as 5-letter words starting with OR or 5-letter words starting with DE.
Among 5-letter words that end with a specific set of letters, the most popular are 5-letter words ending in EO and 5-letter words ending in AGE.
What are the odds of drawing a 5-letter word in Scrabble?
Due to the setup of the game, such as a limited number of each letter among Scrabble tiles, some words are more likely to be formed compared to others. Logically, the more valuable a word is, the less possibility there is to draw letters that form it.
Overall, shorter words are easier to form. For example, there is a 5.8% possibility of playing the average 2-letter word in Scrabble, while the possibility of playing the average 7-letter word is 0.008%, around 1 in 10,000 chance.
For 5-letter words, the probability of forming the average 5-letter word after the first draw of Scrabble tiles is 0.09%, which is a 1 in 1,000 chance.
| Length | Average probability of playing the word in the first turn |
| 2-letter words | 5.80% |
| 3-letter words | 1.26% |
| 4-letter words | 0.34% |
| 5-letter words | 0.09% |
| 6-letter words | 0.03% |
| 7-letter words | 0.008% |
The most probable 5-letter word to play in Scrabble is EERIE, worth 5 points. There is a 0.66% probability of forming this word right at the start of the game. Other 5-letter words with lots of vowels also have a good chance of being drawn at the start of the game, such as AERIE, AINEE, and AREAE (0.61% probability).
To play a 5-letter word worth more than 5 points, you will have to go down to the 50th spot on the probability scale, playing the word DEERE or REEDE. And if you’re looking to play 5-letter words worth 10 or more points, like word DEEDY or DEWED, there is a 0.1% probability to play that word on the first turn on Scrabble.
| Word | Probability |
| EERIE | 0.66% |
| AERIE | 0.61% |
| AINEE | 0.61% |
| AREAE | 0.61% |
| TEENE | 0.54% |
| OORIE | 0.51% |
| ARENE | 0.50% |
| ARERE | 0.50% |
| ARETE | 0.50% |
| EATEN | 0.50% |
| Word | Probability of drawing on the first turn | Note |
| HYPHY | 0.0034% | |
| CHUCK | 0.0032% | |
| MUCKY | 0.0032% | |
| YUCKY | 0.0032% | |
| JUMBY | 0.0032% | |
| JUMPY | 0.0032% | |
| JAZZY | 0.0032% | 1 blank tile needed |
| JACKY | 0.0028% | |
| JOCKY | 0.0026% | |
| PZAZZ | 0.0015% | 2 blank tiles needed |
What are the most commonly used 5-letter words?
Some of the 5-letter words are among the most frequently used words in the English language, both in spoken and written form. The most recognizable 5-letter word is ABOUT, and it accounts for almost 2% of all 5-letter words used daily. Another commonly used 5-letter word is OTHER, accounting for 1.55% of all 5-letter words used.
In the following table, we’ve presented 15 most commonly used 5-letter words in the English language, including the frequency of their use relative to all 5-letter words from the dictionary.
| Rank | Word | Frequency among 5-letter words |
| 1 | ABOUT | 1.94% |
| 2 | OTHER | 1.55% |
| 3 | WHICH | 1.28% |
| 4 | THEIR | 1.24% |
| 5 | THERE | 1.11% |
| 6 | FIRST | 0.91% |
| 7 | WOULD | 0.91% |
| 8 | THESE | 0.86% |
| 9 | CLICK | 0.85% |
| 10 | PRICE | 0.79% |
| 11 | STATE | 0.72% |
| 12 | 0.70% | |
| 13 | WORLD | 0.68% |
| 14 | MUSIC | 0.65% |
| 15 | AFTER | 0.59% |
If we look at all the words from the dictionary, out of the 100 most commonly used words in English, 10 are 5-letter words. These 10 words account for 1.4% of all English words used per day.
| Word | Frequency among all words (per 1,000 words) | Overall frequency rank |
| ABOUT | 2.51 | 33 |
| OTHER | 2.01 | 43 |
| WHICH | 1.66 | 54 |
| THEIR | 1.60 | 55 |
| THERE | 1.44 | 60 |
| FIRST | 1.19 | 77 |
| WOULD | 1.17 | 80 |
| THESE | 1.11 | 86 |
| CLICK | 1.10 | 87 |
| PRICE | 1.03 | 93 |
| STATE | 0.93 | 103 |
| 0.91 | 107 | |
| WORLD | 0.89 | 110 |
| MUSIC | 0.85 | 119 |
| AFTER | 0.76 | 139 |
Most common letters in 5-letter words
Among 5-letter words, the letter S appears most often – 10.28% of all letters in 5-letter words are letter S. Also, 9.94% of all 5-letter words contain at least one letter S in them, also the most among all letters.
This is not surprising considering that a huge portion of 5-letter words are plurals, so the letter S naturally occurs in most of them. In fact, over 30% of all 5-letter words end with the letter S, indicating that plural words account for the majority of letter S appearances. On the other hand, over 12% of all 5-letter words also start with the letter S, which is also the most among all letters.
The next 3 letters that appear the most frequently in 5-letter words are vowels – E, A, and O. Together with S, these letters account for over one-third of all letters used in 5-letter words.
| Letter | Words starting with | Words ending in | Words containing | Share among all letters |
| S | 12.06% | 30.53% | 9.94% | 10.28% |
| E | 2.34% | 11.73% | 9.55% | 10.27% |
| A | 5.67% | 5.24% | 8.92% | 9.23% |
| O | 2.03% | 3.00% | 6.56% | 6.85% |
| R | 4.86% | 5.18% | 6.55% | 6.41% |
| I | 1.27% | 2.16% | 6.01% | 5.80% |
| L | 4.45% | 3.67% | 5.21% | 5.19% |
| T | 6.28% | 5.60% | 5.07% | 5.08% |
| N | 2.51% | 4.08% | 4.67% | 4.55% |
| U | 1.46% | 0.52% | 4.08% | 3.87% |
| D | 5.27% | 6.34% | 3.85% | 3.78% |
| Y | 1.39% | 10.03% | 3.40% | 3.20% |
| C | 7.11% | 0.98% | 3.21% | 3.13% |
| P | 6.63% | 1.13% | 3.16% | 3.11% |
| M | 5.34% | 1.42% | 3.13% | 3.05% |
| H | 3.78% | 2.85% | 2.86% | 2.72% |
| G | 4.92% | 1.10% | 2.58% | 2.53% |
| B | 7.00% | 0.45% | 2.54% | 2.51% |
| K | 2.90% | 1.99% | 2.42% | 2.32% |
| F | 4.60% | 0.63% | 1.66% | 1.72% |
| W | 3.18% | 0.49% | 1.72% | 1.60% |
| V | 1.86% | 0.03% | 1.13% | 1.07% |
| Z | 0.81% | 0.25% | 0.66% | 0.67% |
| J | 1.56% | 0.02% | 0.48% | 0.45% |
| X | 0.12% | 0.54% | 0.48% | 0.44% |
| Q | 0.60% | 0.03% | 0.19% | 0.17% |
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