Wordle Letter Frequency by Position: What 8,637 Five-Letter Words Reveal
Most Wordle advice says to start with common letters. But how common, and in which positions? To find out, we analyzed all 8,637 five-letter words in the word list that powers our tools, counting how often each letter appears and where it tends to show up.
This post shares the results, explains one big caveat, and turns the numbers into practical advice for your first two guesses.
How We Measured
- Word set: every five-letter word in our word list (ENABLE plus later additions), 8,637 words in total.
- "Appears in" means the percentage of words that contain the letter at least once.
- "By position" means the percentage of words with that letter in a given slot.
- The analysis was run on October 22, 2026.
Which Letters Appear Most Often
| Letter | Share of words containing it |
|---|---|
| S | 46.3% |
| E | 44.9% |
| A | 40.5% |
| R | 30.9% |
| O | 29.3% |
| I | 28.1% |
| L | 25.1% |
| T | 24.2% |
| N | 21.4% |
| U | 18.5% |
| D | 18.2% |
| C | 15.9% |
| Y | 15.3% |
At the bottom are Q (0.9%), J (2.0%), X (2.3%), Z (2.4%) and V (5.3%). If you haven't confirmed one of these, you can usually assume it isn't there until the evidence says otherwise.
The Big Caveat: S Is Overrated
S tops the list, but that's misleading. 31.2% of five-letter words in our list end in S, and most of them are plurals like CARES or BONES. Wordle's answers are hand-picked common words and rarely simple plurals, so S is far less useful in Wordle than this raw count suggests.
The practical takeaway: treat E, A and R as the real top tier, and value S mainly in the first position, where it starts words like SLATE and STORM.
Where Letters Like to Sit
| Position | Most common letters |
|---|---|
| 1st | S 12.2%, C 7.7%, B 6.8%, P 6.5%, T 6.3% |
| 2nd | A 17.1%, O 15.5%, E 12.3%, I 11.2%, U 9.2% |
| 3rd | A 9.8%, R 9.2%, I 8.6%, O 7.8%, N 7.3% |
| 4th | E 19.7%, A 7.6%, T 7.2%, I 6.7%, L 6.2% |
| 5th | S 31.2%, E 10.8%, Y 10.5%, D 6.7%, R 6.1% |
A few patterns are worth remembering:
- The second letter is usually a vowel. A, O, E, I and U together fill the second slot in about 65% of words.
- E loves the fourth position (19.7%), as in words ending in -ER, -ED and -ES.
- Y is a strong final letter (10.5%), almost as common as E at the end.
- Consonants dominate the first slot: S, C, B, P and T lead.
What This Means for Your Opening Guess
We scored popular openers by adding up the "appears in" percentages of their five letters. Higher means the guess tests more common letters:
| Opener | Letter coverage score |
|---|---|
| RAISE / ARISE | 190.7 |
| STARE | 186.8 |
| SLATE | 181.0 |
| TRACE / CRATE | 156.4 |
| CRANE | 153.6 |
| ADIEU | 150.2 |
| AUDIO | 134.6 |
Two lessons come out of this:
- Vowel-only openers aren't as strong as they feel. ADIEU and AUDIO test four vowels but skip R, S, T and L, so they score lower than RAISE or STARE.
- Scores for S-heavy openers are inflated. Because S is overrated, CRANE and TRACE are closer to RAISE and STARE in practice than these raw scores suggest. CRANE and TRACE also put C in the first slot, where it's the second most common letter.
A Simple Two-Guess Plan
- Open with a high-coverage word such as RAISE, STARE or TRACE.
- Make your second guess with five new letters that fill the gaps. After STARE, try a word built from letters like O, I, L, N, C, U or D.
- Use positional data to place yellows. A yellow E most often belongs in the fourth slot; a yellow A or O is a strong candidate for the second.
Check Your Words
- Enter your greens, yellows and grays in the Wordle Solver to see every remaining possibility.
- For deeper strategy, read our guides to the best Wordle starting words and Wordle hard mode.
Final Takeaway
The data confirms some Wordle folk wisdom and challenges the rest. E, A and R are the most valuable letters, S is overrated because of plurals, the second slot is almost always a vowel, and E strongly prefers the fourth position. Open with a balanced, high-coverage word, use your second guess to cover new letters, and let the positional patterns guide where you place your yellows.
Sources and Further Reading
- Wordle from The New York Times — the official daily puzzle.