There are roughly 12,000 to 13,000 five letter words in the main game dictionaries, and the exact number depends on the list. Wordle launched with 12,972 words in its guess list, while the Collins Scrabble site counts 12,915. The official Scrabble players dictionary lists only 8,996. This guide explains why the numbers differ. Players can also count five-letter words in the finder to see the results found for a pattern of their own.
| List | 5 letter words | Source |
| Wordle answers (at launch) | 2,315 | WordSoHard |
| Wordle allowed guesses (at launch) | 12,972 | Data Innovation |
| Scrabble US (OSPD6) | 8,996 | word.tips |
| Collins Scrabble Words | 12,915 | Collins |
| General dictionary (257,232 entries) | 12,036 | WordSoHard |
How Many 5 Letter Words Are in the English Language?
The Short Answer
Most lists land between 12,000 and 13,000 words with 5 letters. A clean middle figure comes from WordSoHard, which sorted a 257,232 word dictionary by length and found 12,036 entries. Every letter can fill each of the five slots, so the alphabet forms 11,881,376 possible strings. Real words fill only about 0.1% of them.
Why No Single Number Is Official
No organization owns English, so no list can say exactly which words count. Every list sets its own rules for plurals, loan words and old words. A quick search turns up 13,645 on one online word finder and 8,996 for the official Scrabble players dictionary, according to word.tips. Both numbers are right for their own lists.
How New Words Change the Count
Dictionaries keep growing. Rosetta Stone reports that the Oxford English Dictionary recently added the five letter words calen, a Welsh term for New Year’s Day, and typee, a Guyanese English word for lovesickness. Dr Laura Bailey, a linguistics lecturer at the University of Kent, said the dictionary is “very cautious about what words they add.” Game lists move even slower.
How Many 5 Letter Words Are in the Dictionary?
Count in Scrabble Dictionaries
The sixth edition of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary holds 8,996 five letter words. Tournament lists run larger. NWL2023 serves North American play and includes every OSPD7 word plus offensive terms and trademarks, per Wikipedia. Collins Scrabble Words, used in most other countries, states 12,915 valid entries on its own page, while a Wikipedia table lists 12,972. The words that can be made from a rack also depend on the dictionary a game follows.
Count in General Dictionaries
Merriam-Webster holds about 470,000 words and the Oxford English Dictionary more than 600,000, according to Rosetta Stone. Neither publisher offers a five letter total that this guide could verify.
Share of the Full Word List
In the WordSoHard data, 12,036 five letter words make up 4.68% of 257,232 entries. Two-letter words form the rarest band, so five letter words sit comfortably in the middle.
How Many 5 Letter Words Are There in Wordle?
Wordle Answer List vs Allowed Guesses
Creator Josh Wardle built two lists. The answer list held 2,315 words and the guess list added 10,657 more, which brings the total to 12,972. Only the 2,315 could become the daily answer. Yellow tiles mark a letter in the wrong position, and green tiles lock known positions. Readers can learn how yellow letters work before trying a Wordle solver.
How the NYT Changed the List
TechRadar notes that Wordle answers once came from 2,309 solutions and that the NYT has since added words of its own. Researcher Ronald Greenberg reports that the July 18, 2025 answer was not on the published list, and that WordleBot suggests about 15,000 allowed guesses. A public copy of the list on GitHub holds 14,855 words. No official current total appeared in the sources checked.
Why Obscure Words Are Accepted as Guesses
Greenberg says most allowed guess words are very obscure and unlikely to appear as answers. WordSoHard shows how far the list stretches, since BRAWS, ZOEAE and NAEVI all count as legal entries. Even CWTCH, a Welsh word with no standard vowel, passes. A player with a simple strategy can treat the answer list as the real target.
Why the Count Depends on the Word List
Proper Nouns, Plurals and Verb Forms
A word list is a plain text file with one word per line, and a computer reads each line as a string of characters. Whoever writes the code decides what goes in. Readers can learn how word lists are built step by step. Game lists generally leave out proper nouns and take in plurals and verb forms. A Leancrew analysis notes that many legal Scrabble words with five letters are just pluralized four letter words.
US vs UK Spelling
Spelling splits the lists too. Color has five letters, while the UK colour has six, so only the US spelling counts. NWL serves North American play and Collins serves most other countries, so each list carries its own spellings.
Archaic, Dialect and Slang Entries
The Scrabble players site says Collins holds more obsolete and dialect words, including Scots and words from Australia, South Africa and India. Even slang like SRSLY sits in the public Wordle list copy.
| List | 5 letter words | Source |
| Scrabble players dictionary (OSPD6) | 8,996 | word.tips |
| General dictionary | 12,036 | WordSoHard |
| Collins Scrabble Words | 12,915 | Collins |
| Wordle guess list at launch | 12,972 | Data Innovation |
| Wordle list, public copy | 14,855 | GitHub |
How Many 5 Letter Words Exist in Total?
Best Estimate Range with Reasons ( Screen shot)
A fair range runs from about 9,000 to 15,000. The low end matches the strict OSPD6 count of 8,996. The high end matches the 14,855 word Wordle copy. Most standard lists fall between 12,000 and 13,000, so that band works as the everyday answer. A 5 letter word finder can help narrow a pattern with letters already known, and readers can learn how to filter five-letter words in a few steps.
Common vs Obscure 5 Letter Words
WordSoHard’s frequency check found 1,214 common words, which equals about 10.09% of its 5 letter list. About nine in ten entries fall outside that group. Word.tips names OTHER, WHICH and THERE as the most common of all.
5 Letter Words by Starting Letter
The counts below come from the 14,855 word Wordle list copy on GitHub and follow count order, not alphabetical order. Readers can also browse five-letter words by starting a letter.
Letters With the Most Words
S leads with 1,666 words. P follows with 1,130, then B with 1,003 and C with 970. TechRadar adds that S starts Wordle answers almost twice as often as C.
Letters With the Fewest Words
X starts with only 18 words. Q starts 103 and Z starts 122. The list matters here too. JetPunk counts 211 words starting with E in NWL2020, while the Wordle copy holds 330.
| Starting letter | Words |
| S | 1,666 |
| P | 1,130 |
| B | 1,003 |
| C | 970 |
| E | 330 |
| Z | 122 |
| Q | 103 |
| X | 18 |
5 Letter Words by Ending Letter
Readers can browse five-letter words by ending letter for full lists.
Why S, E and Y Lead ( Screen shot)
S ends 4,339 words, which is 29.2% of the Wordle copy. E follows with 1,739 and Y with 1,527. Plural S, silent E and the common Y ending explain much of that lead.
Why Plurals Inflate the S Count
Lists that include plurals and third person verbs pick up a large block of S words. At the other extreme, J ends only 3 words while Q and V end 5 each.
| Ending letter | Words |
| S | 4,339 |
| E | 1,739 |
| Y | 1,527 |
| A | 885 |
| D | 874 |
| J | 3 |
| Q | 5 |
| V | 5 |
FAQs
How many 5 letter words are there in English?
Most standard word lists hold between 12,000 and 13,000. WordSoHard counts 12,036 in a 257,232 word dictionary, and Collins Scrabble Words lists 12,915.
How many 5 letter words are in Wordle?
Wordle launched with 12,972 accepted guesses, made of 2,315 answers and 10,657 extra guesses. Researcher Ronald Greenberg reports about 15,000 allowed guesses today, and a public copy on GitHub holds 14,855.
How many 5 letter words are valid in Scrabble?
The answer depends on the dictionary. The official players dictionary counts 8,996, and Collins Scrabble Words lists 12,915 on its own page.
What is the most common 5 letter word?
Word.tips names OTHER, WHICH and THERE as the most common five letter words in English.
Which letters do most 5 letter words start and end with?
S leads at both ends. In the 14,855 word Wordle copy, S starts 1,666 words and ends 4,339.
Are there 5 letter words with no vowels?
Yes. The Wordle copy holds 58 words that contain no A, E, I, O or U. Most lean on Y, such as CRYPT, LYMPH and TRYST, while CWTCH comes from Welsh and uses W as its vowel sound.
Conclusion
The number of five letter words depends on the list. Strict Scrabble lists give about 9,000, while Collins and the original Wordle list sit near 13,000. Players who enjoy the puzzle can have fun testing each list, and a good idea is to check the list before quoting any number.
