Word lists
5 Letter Words
Our dictionary has 4,199 5 letter words, and 1,365 of them are everyday words. Here are the most common ones, every starting letter from A to Z, and tips for word games, all worked out from the same list our games use.
The 100 most common 5 letter words
Ranked by how often they appear in everyday English, most common first.
- about
- their
- there
- which
- would
- other
- after
- first
- think
- could
- these
- where
- right
- years
- being
- going
- still
- never
- those
- world
- great
- while
- every
- state
- three
- since
- under
- thing
- house
- place
- again
- found
- might
- money
- night
- until
- doing
- group
- women
- start
- times
- today
- point
- music
- power
- water
- based
- small
- white
- later
- order
- party
- thank
- using
- black
- makes
- whole
- maybe
- story
- games
- least
- means
- early
- local
- video
- young
- court
- given
- level
- often
- hours
- south
- known
- large
- wrong
- along
- needs
- class
- close
- comes
- looks
- cause
- happy
- human
- woman
- leave
- north
- watch
- light
- short
- taken
- third
- among
- check
- heart
- asked
- child
- major
- media
- phone
5 letter words by first letter
How many 5 letter words start with each letter, with the most common examples. Tap a letter to see the full list.
- 5 letter words starting with A: 208 wordsabout, after, again, along
- 5 letter words starting with B: 314 wordsbeing, based, black, bring
- 5 letter words starting with C: 340 wordscould, court, class, close
- 5 letter words starting with D: 220 wordsdoing, drive, daily, dance
- 5 letter words starting with E: 96 wordsevery, early, event, enjoy
- 5 letter words starting with F: 243 wordsfirst, found, final, front
- 5 letter words starting with G: 193 wordsgoing, great, group, games
- 5 letter words starting with H: 172 wordshouse, hours, happy, human
- 5 letter words starting with I: 49 wordsissue, image, ideas, items
- 5 letter words starting with J: 50 wordsjudge, joint, juice, jokes
- 5 letter words starting with K: 50 wordsknown, knows, keeps, kinds
- 5 letter words starting with L: 196 wordslater, least, local, level
- 5 letter words starting with M: 210 wordsmight, money, music, makes
- 5 letter words starting with N: 83 wordsnever, night, needs, north
- 5 letter words starting with O: 76 wordsother, order, often, offer
- 5 letter words starting with P: 271 wordsplace, point, power, party
- 5 letter words starting with Q: 29 wordsquite, quick, queen, quiet
- 5 letter words starting with R: 203 wordsright, ready, round, range
- 5 letter words starting with S: 584 wordsstill, state, since, start
- 5 letter words starting with T: 275 wordstheir, there, think, these
- 5 letter words starting with U: 45 wordsunder, until, using, union
- 5 letter words starting with V: 81 wordsvideo, value, voice, visit
- 5 letter words starting with W: 171 wordswhich, would, where, world
- 5 letter words starting with X: 2 wordsxenon, xylem
- 5 letter words starting with Y: 26 wordsyears, young, yours, youth
- 5 letter words starting with Z: 12 wordszones, zeros, zebra, zebus
5 letter words by ending
- Ending in E468 words
- Ending in S1,390 words
- Ending in Y397 words
- Ending in T274 words
- Ending in R266 words
- Ending in ER190 words
- Ending in A82 words
- Ending in O63 words
- Ending in H148 words
- Ending in K115 words
- Ending in L172 words
- Ending in D372 words
- Ending in N155 words
- Ending in P62 words
- Ending in CH65 words
- Ending in ED267 words
- Ending in ES306 words
- Ending in TH41 words
- Ending in CK45 words
5 letter words by middle letter
Tips for 5 letter word games
- Lead with vowels. 163 of our 4,199 5 letter words use three or more different vowels, and only ADIEU and AUDIO use 4. Common vowel-heavy words like ABOUT, HOUSE, VIDEO, CAUSE and MEDIA test several vowels in one go.
- Know the busiest letters. S appears in 49% of 5 letter words, E in 47% and A in 38%. Next come R, O, I, L and T.
- Watch the start. S is by far the most common first letter (584 words, 14%), followed by C (340) and B (314).
- Watch the end. 33% of 5 letter words end in S, mostly plurals. E (11%) and Y (9%) come next. The most common two letter endings are -ES, -ED and -ER.
- Expect repeats. 33% of 5 letter words repeat a letter, like THERE, WHICH and THESE. If you are stuck with few letters left, try doubling one.
- Y counts as a vowel sometimes. 15 words in our list have no A, E, I, O or U at all, such as CRYPT, GLYPH, HYMNS, LYMPH and MYTHS.
Put them to use
- Word GuessGuess the five letter word in six tries.
- Letter SwapSwap scrambled letters to rebuild six words.
- HangmanGuess the word one letter at a time.
- Word LadderChange one letter at a time to reach the target word.
New to five letter guessing games? Read our best starting words guide or try the daily Word Guess.
Other lengths: 4 letter words, 6 letter words, 7 letter words, 8 letter words or browse all word lists.
Questions
How many 5 letter words are there?
Our word list has 4,199 5 letter words, and 1,365 of them are everyday words. Bigger tournament word lists include many more rare and technical words.
What is the most common 5 letter word?
In everyday English, ABOUT is the most frequent 5 letter word in our list, followed by THEIR, THERE, WHICH and WOULD.
Which 5 letter words have the most vowels?
ADIEU and AUDIO use 4 different vowels, the most of any 5 letter word in our list. 163 words use three or more.
What letter do most 5 letter words start with?
S. 584 of our 5 letter words start with S, about 14%. C and B come next.
Are there 5 letter words without vowels?
Yes, if you don't count Y. Our list has 15: CRYPT, CYSTS, DRYLY, FLYBY, GLYPH, HYMNS, LYMPH, LYNCH, MYRRH, MYTHS, NYMPH, PSYCH, SLYLY, SYLPH and TRYST.
How do I find 5 letter words with certain letters?
Use the Word Finder. Set the length to 5, then add letters you know, letters in exact spots and letters to leave out.
Word lists are based on SCOWL. “Most common” order uses data from wordfreq by Robyn Speer, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.