Which letters really matter.
Knowing which letters turn up most — and where in the word they sit — is the quickest way to pick better guesses. These figures come straight from GuessWord's answer lists, so they describe the words you'll actually meet.
Each percentage is the share of answers that contain the letter at least once. “S 47.7%” means almost half of all possible answers have an S somewhere in them. We count a letter once per word, so “geese” adds one to E, not three — that's what matters when you decide whether a letter is worth testing.
GuessWord has three answer lists: 728 Daily words, 1,456 Infinite words and 2,844 words for rounds played without an account. The overall table combines all 5,028; the tables after it split them up, because the lists behave quite differently.
| Letter | In answers | Letter | In answers |
|---|---|---|---|
| S | 47.7% | E | 46.6% |
| A | 38.0% | R | 31.5% |
| O | 28.5% | I | 26.3% |
| T | 25.6% | L | 25.4% |
| N | 21.2% | D | 19.7% |
| U | 18.1% | C | 16.3% |
| P | 15.3% | Y | 14.3% |
| H | 13.6% | M | 13.5% |
| B | 11.7% | G | 11.7% |
| K | 9.9% | W | 8.9% |
| F | 8.8% | V | 5.6% |
| X | 2.1% | Z | 2.0% |
| J | 1.6% | Q | 1.0% |
Two letters stand apart: S and E each appear in nearly half of all answers. After them come A, R and O, then a close pack of I, T and L around a quarter each. At the other end, V, X, Z, J and Q together appear in fewer than one answer in eight — testing them early almost always wastes a slot.
| Mode | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily | E 51.8% | A 42.4% | R 41.1% | T 33.8% | S 28.7% |
| Infinite | E 43.3% | A 38.9% | R 35.0% | O 30.8% | I 27.5% |
| Guest play | S 63.4% | E 46.9% | A 36.5% | O 27.5% | R 27.3% |
- Daily: E leads (more than half of all Daily words), and R is unusually strong at 41%. S drops to fifth because Daily answers are rarely plurals.
- Infinite: similar to Daily but with more O, U and Y — about twice as many Infinite answers end in Y.
- Guest play: S jumps to the top at 63%, because more than half of these answers end in S. D rises too, thanks to past tenses ending in -ED.
| Position | Most common | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | S 16.8% | C 9.2% | B 7.4% | T 7.4% |
| 2nd | R 14.6% | O 12.4% | A 11.3% | E 10.4% |
| 3rd | A 16.6% | I 12.4% | E 10.7% | O 9.8% |
| 4th | E 13.7% | S 8.7% | A 8.5% | N 8.1% |
| 5th | E 21.7% | T 13.3% | R 9.6% | Y 8.1% |
Daily words most often start with S, C, B or T and end in E (more than one in five), T, R or Y. R is the most common second letter — think of words that open with a consonant pair like “br”, “cr” or “tr”.
| Position | Most common | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | S 15.6% | C 8.7% | B 7.2% | A 6.5% |
| 2nd | A 14.1% | O 12.8% | E 10.5% | I 9.9% |
| 3rd | A 12.0% | O 11.0% | I 9.9% | R 6.9% |
| 4th | E 13.9% | I 6.9% | N 6.8% | O 6.6% |
| 5th | E 17.2% | Y 17.1% | R 10.0% | T 9.2% |
The big difference is the last letter: Y ends 17% of Infinite answers, almost as often as E. If an Infinite board shows a vowel pattern but no ending yet, Y in the last slot is a strong candidate.
| Position | Most common | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | S 10.9% | B 7.7% | C 7.5% | P 7.1% |
| 2nd | A 19.8% | O 17.0% | I 12.9% | E 12.2% |
| 3rd | R 9.3% | A 8.8% | L 8.4% | I 8.3% |
| 4th | E 27.8% | T 9.3% | L 6.3% | N 6.1% |
| 5th | S 54.8% | D 10.8% | Y 8.5% | E 4.4% |
More than half of guest-play answers end in S, and the fourth letter is E in more than a quarter of them — the “-es” and “-ed” endings at work. A guess that puts E fourth and S fifth can score two greens straight away.
- Spend your first two guesses on the high-frequency letters: E, A, R, S, O, I, T, L and N cover most answers.
- Use position, not just presence. An amber S is far more likely to belong in the first or last slot than in the middle.
- Every answer in our lists that contains Q also contains U, so if you've found a Q, test U next.
- Leave V, X, Z, J and Q until the board points to them — between them they appear in very few answers.
The best starting words guide turns these letters into specific openers, and the word patterns guide covers endings, double letters and vowels.