Words that are mostly vowels.
Looking for five-letter words packed with A, E, I, O and U? Here is every one GuessWord can pick as an answer — the four with four vowels, all 223 with three, and the nine with none at all — plus what the numbers say about using them as your first guess.
Out of 2,184 Daily and Infinite answers, just AUDIO, ADIEU, EERIE and QUEUE have four vowels. AUDIO is a Daily answer; the other three are Infinite. No five-letter answer has five vowels, and the only other four-vowel word the game accepts is AERIE, which can come up in guest play.
Notice that EERIE and QUEUE get there by repeating a letter — they only use two different vowels. If you want four different vowels in one word, AUDIO and ADIEU are the only answers that have them.
| Vowels (A E I O U) | Daily | Infinite | Guest play |
|---|---|---|---|
| None (Y only) | 0 | 9 | 10 |
| One | 207 | 456 | 1,112 |
| Two | 454 | 831 | 1,584 |
| Three | 66 | 157 | 137 |
| Four | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Five | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Three vowels is already unusual: only about one Daily or Infinite answer in ten has them, and in guest play it drops to one in twenty. Most answers have two. So a word with three or more vowels is a good guess to find vowels, but rarely the answer itself.
All 223 Daily and Infinite answers with exactly three vowels (A, E, I, O, U — Y not counted). Words like GEESE and QUEEN count the repeated E twice.
abateabideabodeaboutaboveacuteadageadiosaegisafireafootafoulagainagapeagateagaveagileagoraagreeaheadaislealgaealibialienalikealivealohaalonealoofaloudamazeamigoamineaminoamouramuseanimaanionaniseanodeaortaapneaarenaarguearisearomaaroseasideatoneauditaugeraugurauralavailavianavoidawaitawakeawareawokeaxialaxiomazure
bayoubeautbeigebiomebooze
cacaocanoecauseceaseciliacocoacoupecutie
deucediodedouse
eagereagleeaseleateneatereliteelopeeludeemailemceeensueequalequiperaseerodeetudeevadeevokeexileexude
faunafoliofugue
gaugegauzegeesegeniegooeygougeguanoguavaguideguileguise
haikuheavehouse
idealidiomiglooimageinaneionicirateissue
juice
koala
leaseleaveleveelooselouse
mafiamaizemaniamauvemediameleemoosemousemoviemoxie
naiveniecenoisenoose
oasisoceanodouroldieoliveomegaonionoperaounceoutdoouterovateoxideozone
patiopausepeacepeevepianopiecepiouspiquepixiepoisepuree
quailquakequeenquietquitequotaquote
radiiradioraiseratioreevereuserevuerodeoroguerouserouterupee
saucesaunasegueseizesepiasiegesievesuavesuedesuite
tabootaupeteasetiaratibia
undueunionuniteunseeuntieusageusual
vaguevaluevenuevideovitaevoguevoicevoila
wahoowaiveweave
yahoo
Three in five of them end in E, and half start with a vowel — more than a quarter with A alone. The two most common shapes are consonant–vowel–vowel–consonant–vowel, like HOUSE, VOICE and PAUSE, and vowel–consonant–vowel–consonant–vowel, like ABOVE, ALONE and AWARE.
| Letter | Daily + Infinite | Guest play |
|---|---|---|
| E | 46.1% | 46.9% |
| A | 40.1% | 36.5% |
| O | 29.8% | 27.5% |
| I | 27.6% | 25.2% |
| U | 19.3% | 17.2% |
| Y | 16.5% | 12.6% |
E is in nearly half of all answers, and A in about two in five. U is the rarest true vowel — in fewer than one answer in five — which is one reason U-heavy openers like AUDIO underperform. Y appears in about one answer in six, usually at the end (FUNNY, HAPPY, STORY).
| List | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily + Infinite | 13.2% | 53.6% | 49.2% | 37.5% | 25.8% |
| Guest play | 9.6% | 71.9% | 34.6% | 40.5% | 8.5% |
The second letter is a vowel in more than half of all answers, and the third in about half. The first letter is a vowel only about one time in eight. In guest play the pattern is even sharper: seven answers in ten have a vowel second, and fewer than one in ten ends in one — because more than half of guest answers are plurals ending in S.
So when you know a vowel is in the word but not where, try it second or third before anywhere else.
| Shape (C consonant, V vowel) | Share | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| C V C V C | 19.3% | RAPID, HUMOR, SOLAR |
| C C V C C | 16.2% | BLACK, CLIFF, STAND |
| C V C C C | 11.8% | FUNNY, PUNCH, WIDTH |
| C V C C V | 8.7% | FORCE, DENSE, PIZZA |
| C C V C V | 8.0% | STONE, DRAMA, PHONE |
| C C V V C | 7.8% | STEAK, TRAIL, DREAM |
| C V V C C | 7.6% | FIELD, FAULT, TOUGH |
| V C C V C | 4.2% | OTHER, AWFUL, ACTOR |
The single most common shape is consonant–vowel–consonant–vowel–consonant, like RAPID or SOLAR — about one answer in five. Close behind are words with one vowel boxed in by consonant pairs, like BLACK and STAND. Knowing these shapes helps when you have the vowels and need to place the rest.
| Opener | Vowels found | Letters found | Greens | No vowel found |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADIEU | 1.33 | 1.48 | 0.32 | 8.8% |
| AUDIO | 1.17 | 1.32 | 0.28 | 9.4% |
| AROSE | 1.16 | 1.80 | 0.54 | 15.5% |
| IRATE | 1.14 | 1.80 | 0.50 | 17.9% |
| RAISE | 1.14 | 1.78 | 0.54 | 17.9% |
| SLATE | 0.86 | 1.69 | 0.62 | 30.0% |
| CRANE | 0.86 | 1.67 | 0.59 | 30.0% |
ADIEU does what it promises: it finds the most vowels (1.33 per game) and leaves you with no vowel at all only 8.8% of the time. But it finds fewer letters overall than AROSE, IRATE or RAISE, and noticeably fewer green tiles (0.32 a game against 0.54). Those openers still find more than one vowel on average, and their consonants — R, S and T — are common in answers.
In short, vowels are easy to find later — almost every answer has one or two — while greens and common consonants are what narrow the board fastest. The full comparison is in the best starting words.
Nine Infinite answers have no A, E, I, O or U and use Y instead: CRYPT, FLYBY, GLYPH, LYMPH, MYRRH, NYMPH, PSYCH, SYNCH and TRYST. None of them is a Daily answer. Guest play has ten more, such as GYPSY, MYTHS and SYNTH. If you've ruled out every vowel and the board still won't budge, try a Y in the second or third spot.
- Expect two vowels. Once you've found two, spend your next guess on consonants.
- Try a known vowel in the second or third spot first — that's where most vowels sit.
- E and A are the vowels most worth testing early; U is the least.
- No vowels found after two guesses? Look for Y, or a repeated vowel such as EE or OO.
- Save the three-vowel words for when you need to place vowels, not as an opener.
Repeated vowels are covered in 5-letter words with double letters, and endings and other shapes in five-letter word patterns.