What vowel pattern is most common in 5-letter words?

Words with exactly 2 unique vowels are the most common, making up roughly 50% of Wordle answer words. The AE vowel pattern (words containing A and E as their only vowels — like TRACE, CRANE, STARE) is the single most frequent two-vowel combination.

Common 5-Letter Words Analyzed by Vowel Pattern

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The optimal Wordle opener: TRACE scores 5.99 bits of information — it places E, T, A, R, C in the positions where those letters appear most frequently across all possible answers. After TRACE as your first guess, the ideal follow-up for uncovering remaining common letters is SOLID (S, O, L, I, D). Together these two guesses test 10 distinct, high-frequency letters.

Most common vowel pattern

Two-vowel words make up ~50% of common 5-letter words. The AE pattern — words with only A and E as vowels, like TRACE, CRANE, STARE — is the single most common two-vowel combination among Wordle answers.

Unique-letter advantage

About 60% of Wordle words have 5 distinct letters. Opening with a unique-letter word always gives better information — you learn about 5 different letters rather than confirming a repeat you already know.

High-vowel strategy

Words with 3+ vowels (AUDIO, OUIJA) eliminate many vowels in one guess but reveal fewer consonants. Best used as a second guess after a consonant-heavy opener narrows the field.

The S position

S appears in ~37% of 5-letter Wordle words — more than any other consonant. However, S rarely appears in position 1. Positions 4 and 5 are the most productive places to test for S.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best 5-letter starting word for Wordle?

By information theory, TRACE, CRANE, SLATE, and CRATE are top openers. TRACE scores 5.99 bits of information per guess — the highest in this dataset. It places E, T, A, R, C in their most-frequent positions across all possible Wordle answers.

What does "info score" (bits) mean?

The information score measures how much a guess narrows down the answer pool on average, measured in bits. A score of 6 bits means the guess eliminates about 64 of every 65 remaining possibilities on average. Higher is better. Words without a score are valid answers but weren't analyzed for opener efficiency.

Can I download the full word list?

Yes — click Download CSV above. The file includes all words with vowel pattern, vowel count, unique-letter flag, and information score. Licensed CC BY 4.0: free to use with attribution.

Why do some words have no info score?

The information score is calculated for a curated set of top strategic openers. Words in the full answer list but not analyzed for opener efficiency show a dash. All words without a score are still valid Wordle answers — they just haven't been scored for first-guess efficiency.

Common 5-Letter Words — Analyzed by Vowel Pattern