Original research Published July 29, 2026 · updated August 28, 2026
We analyzed 12,653 five-letter words.
Here’s what wins the most information.
A reproducible look at letter frequency, position, vowels, repeated letters, endings, and strong opening guesses across the English word data that powers UnscramblerHQ.
01 Key findings
The short version.
- Distinct letters dominate.Openers with five different letters test more of the board than words that repeat a letter.
- Position changes the value.A common letter overall is not automatically common in every tile position.
- Two vowels is the center of gravity.7,529 words in this dataset contain exactly 2 vowels.
- Repeats are common enough to respect.4,534 five-letter words repeat at least one letter.
02 Overall frequency
The ten busiest letters.
Counts include every appearance, so a repeated letter contributes more than once. The bar length is relative to the most frequent letter in this dataset.
03 Position matters
Each tile has its own leaders.
These rankings count which letters appear most often in each exact position, from the first tile through the fifth.
S1,5401
C9042
B8913
P8334
T7945
A2,1951
O2,0402
E1,5873
I1,3584
U1,1545
A1,2231
R1,1712
I1,0293
O9724
N9445
E2,2731
A1,0512
T8883
I8534
N7705
S3,8591
E1,4892
Y1,2693
D8104
T7175
04 Vowel shape
How many vowels?
05 Common endings
The final two letters.
06 Opening guesses
Ten strong information-first starters.
We ranked recognizable five-letter words with no repeated letters using a blend of overall letter frequency and exact-position frequency. Scores are indexed to the top result at 100.
Method Reproducible by design
What this study measures—and what it does not.
We analyzed all unique five-letter lowercase alphabetic entries in the English word list used by UnscramblerHQ: 12,653 words and 63,265 letter positions. Starter rankings are limited to 4,606 words with evidence of ordinary English use, then favor unique letters, overall frequency, and exact-position frequency.
This is an analysis of a broad English solver dictionary, not The New York Times’ private answer-selection process or a claim that every analyzed word is eligible to appear as a Wordle answer. Results may be quoted with attribution and a link to this page.