Wordle is a daily online word-guessing game that millions of players tackle each morning. In Wordle, the player must guess a secret five-letter word (the “Wordle answer”) in six tries, using feedback about which letters are correct and in the right position.
Since 2022 the answers come from an official list curated by The New York Times. (Originally the game’s creator compiled about 2,500 common words). The Times refines this answer list to fit its editorial standards: the words are meant to be “fun, accessible, lively and varied”, while excluding obvious plurals, profanity, or obscure jargon. For example, simple plurals like MOLES or PANTS will never be Wordle answers, although irregular plurals like WOMEN or CACTI remain allowed.
Some generic nouns with alternate meanings may be dropped for sensitivity (e.g. “ASIAN” is invalid, whereas “JAPAN” and “CHINA” are allowed). The broader guess dictionary is much larger and unfiltered, but the solutions (“words of the day”) come from this smaller hand-picked list. (For context, Wordle’s popularity has spawned dozens of themed spin-offs – for example, the geography quiz Worldle uses country names, and the music quiz Heardle uses song titles – but these use completely different word pools).
Letter Frequency and Word Structure
Analysis of the released Wordle answers (through 2024) reveals clear patterns in letter usage. Overall, the most common letters in the solution set are E, A, R, T, and O. Tom’s Guide finds that E appears far more often than any other letter – roughly 376 times in the ~2,309-word list (about 18% of all letters). The next most frequent letters are A (339 occurrences), R (302), T (254), O (250), and L (218). By contrast, letters like J, Q, X, Z appear extremely rarely (only a handful of answers each). These imbalances mirror English usage and the word list’s focus on common vocabulary. The table below highlights the frequency of key letters in past Wordle answers:
| Letter | Occurrences in solutions |
|---|---|
| E | 376 |
| A | 339 |
| R | 302 |
| T | 254 |
| O | 250 |
| L | 218 |
Because E, A, R, T, O, L, I dominate most answers, savvy players often include these in guesses. High-scrabble-value letters like J and Q are very uncommon in Wordle answers, so any puzzle containing them (as in JOLLY or QUOTH) tends to be unusual and can increase difficulty. In fact, game statistics show that words with rare letters or letter-pattern quirks often have lower solve rates.
First and Last Letters
Wordle answers also show clear biases by position. In first-letter statistics, S stands out dramatically. Over 15% of all answers begin with S – roughly three times more than any other starting letter – and about six other letters (C, B, T, P, A, F) each start 5–8% of words. The chart below (based on historical data) illustrates the dominance of S and how quickly frequencies drop for other initials
Because S and a few others (C, B, A, etc.) are so common as first letters, it is not unusual to see puzzles like “_ _ _ _ _” where an early guess with S-start (e.g. START, SLATE) reveals valuable information. Conversely, letters like J, Z, Q almost never begin the answer.
At the other end, final letters also cluster around a few choices. By far the most common last letter is E – nearly one in five answers ends in E. After E, other frequent endings include Y, T, R, L, H, N and D, as revealed by analyzing positions. In stark contrast, S is almost never used as the last letter (well under 2% of answers), reflecting the editorial rule against ordinary plurals. (In a normal English dictionary, “S” is by far the most common five-letter word ending, but Wordle’s curated list virtually eliminates that usage). The chart below illustrates the skew toward E-end words and away from S-end words:
Two-letter combinations also show predictability. For example, the bigram “ER” is the single most common ending (e.g. SUPER, LASER, POWER). Similarly, common starting digraphs include SC-, ST-, SP- (as implied by many S-starts) and some predictable pairs like “GR” and “FL” which appear more often than random chance. However, most two-letter patterns outside those common ones occur only once or twice in the whole list, so one must still watch for rare combos (e.g. WD, XT) that could appear in a new puzzle.
Vowels and Consonants
Vowels appear roughly 35–40% of the time in Wordle answers (the rest are consonants). Notably, answers tend to start and end with consonants and pack vowels in the middle. In the known answers, about 60–74% of words (depending on how “Y” is counted) have a consonant in the last position, and similarly the first letter is far more often a consonant than a vowel. By contrast, the second and third letters of answers are slightly more likely to be vowels than consonants. In fact, analysis shows that the 2nd and 3rd positions are dominated by vowels: A, O, I and E together appear in those slots in well over half of puzzles. This means that many answers have the form C-V-V-C-C or C-V-C-C-C (C=consonant, V=vowel). Practically speaking, Wordle answers very rarely are consonant-heavy words like “GYPSY” (no true vowel) – players almost always expect at least one A/E/I/O/U in a puzzle. A typical Wordle has about two vowels (not counting Y). For example, in the table from Tom’s analysis, vowels occupy positions 2 and 3 more often than consonants, whereas position 1 and 5 are usually consonants.
Common Word Patterns and Difficulty
Because of the selection biases above, Wordle answers fall into certain prototypical patterns. Many answers are common nouns or everyday words (e.g. TRAIN, GLOVE, PLANT, CABLE). Others are everyday adjectives or verbs (e.g. BRAVE, SHINE, DRIVE). Very rarely does the list include arcane jargon, archaic spellings, or purely foreign terms. Instead, if a word might be unknown to most players, the Times tends to swap it for something more familiar – for example, one planned answer AGORA (an obscure ancient Greek term) was later changed to the more common AROMA.
That said, challenging words do appear occasionally to keep the game interesting. Statistically, about 15% of answers contain a repeated letter. Double letters pose a known difficulty: for instance, E is the most common repeated letter (172 words have two E’s), and others like O, L, A, T, R also appear twice in dozens of answers each. Words with a double letter (like BALLOON or APPLE-style patterns) show up roughly once a week on average. Even more rare are triple-letter words: only five Wordles (to date) have had three of the same letter (examples: ERROR, MUMMY, SISSY, etc.).
These repeats often drive up the solve difficulty. For example, JOLLY (with a rare J and double L) was rated one of the hardest puzzles of 2024: nearly 30% of players failed to guess it in six tries. Another very tough puzzle was CORER (with two Rs and the pattern _O_ER); its solve rate was only about 56%. In general, when a guess leaves a pattern like “_O_ER” or contains double letters, the number of possible words skyrockets, and players need more tries on average. Indeed, WordleBot statistics confirm that these unusual-letter puzzles have higher-than-average guess counts.
Other factors can affect difficulty. Some Wordle answers contain two vowels or two consonants in a row, which can catch solvers off guard. Uncommon letter combinations or digraphs (like PH, GH, QU) rarely appear in answers, so encountering them tends to slow down the guessing. On the flip side, answers made up of very common chunks are usually easy: endings like -ING or -ED (when fitting a common word) tend to be solved more quickly.
Tips and Examples
Putting this together, Wordle players preparing for 2025 can use these trends as guidance without knowing future answers. For instance:
- Remember the letter pool. Expect about 2 common vowels (usually A/E/O) and 3 consonants in each answer. Very rarely will a puzzle have zero vowels (News outlets noted only a handful of vowel-less answers by late 2024).
- Start & end patterns. Strongly consider words that begin with S, C, A, or B for early guesses (since S and its friends account for about 40% of starts). Similarly, many answers end in E, Y, T, or R. If your final guess slots reveal a common ending, that can quickly narrow it down.
- Common letters first. Use guesses that cover E, A, R, T, O, L, I – these letters appear in a majority of answers. Many players like words such as AROSE, NOTES, ALERT, etc., because they test several top letters at once (a technique supported by the frequency table above).
- Watch for repeats. Be alert that about one in seven puzzles has a double letter. If you find one letter and it shows up again, recall which letters commonly double (notably E, L, O, T, etc.) and guess accordingly.
- Prepare for oddballs. Even with all this, expect the occasional curveball. The curated list does include some less obvious words (even though it avoids outright obscurities). Solutions like CACTI or WOMEN (irregular plurals) are possible, and rare letters like J or Z can appear occasionally. Just know they are uncommon – if you guess a J-word and it shows up green, it’s likely the answer (since only ~9 answers use J).
Below are a few illustrative sample words (from past puzzles and likely patterns) – not to memorize as answers, but to see the kinds of words Wordle uses:
- Everyday words: APPLE, TRAIN, BRAVE, FILTH, COVER (common letters, no repeats).
- High-frequency letters: ALERT, NOTES, STORE (cover multiple of E, A, R, T, O, S).
- Double-letter examples: SLEEP, BALLO, MUMMY, QUEEN, TOTEM (shows E, L, M, O doubling patterns).
- Words with Y or uncommon letters: GYPSY, JOLLY, VYING, FIZZY (these used Y, J, V, Z – these actually occurred in 2024 puzzles and were among the hardest).
Conclusion
Remember that Wordle’s editors may swap in harder or easier words over time to keep the puzzle balanced. For example, AGORA (a relatively obscure term) was replaced by AROMA to make the scheduled puzzle easier for players. So while patterns give hints, don’t be shocked if an unusual word sneaks in now and then.
In summary, no one can know the exact Wordle answers of 2025 in advance, but studying past patterns helps. The NYT’s curated list heavily favors certain letters and structures. Players can prepare by focusing on common letters and endings, expecting about two vowels per word, and remembering that simple plurals will never be answers. Keeping these trends in mind – without relying on memorized answers – is the best way to improve your Wordle game going into 2025.