5 Letter Words

Other than bingos, five letter words are some of the rarest plays in word games like Words With Friends and Scrabble. Most of the time, they have a less-than-average scoring ratio, but players use them to clear their rack of troublesome letters so that they can make easier bingos in later turns.

WHICH are the Most Popular Five-Letter Words?

OTHER, WHICH and THERE are the most common five-letter words. The word WHICH, in particular, is a fine word to ditch both Hs, a W, and a C for decent points and to get more bingo-like letters in your rack. Other and there, however, use up good bingo letters for not a lot of points and so should be avoided.

Strategy for 5-Letter Words

One of the chief strategies for 5 letter words is the use of the S tile to make two words by placing the S on a double or triple square of some sort. Remember, though, that keeping two great letters in your rack after playing a five-letter word is often more important than scoring the most points possible while leaving two troublesome letters in your rack.

For example, if your rack is S, C, O, W, S, A, and T, you could hook scow onto an existing word and keep S, A, and T in your rack. Let's say you put scow on a double word score. It is certainly not worth the extra two points to play the second S because you will be left with three fantastic letters for making a bingo instead of just two. Other 5 letter words starting with S that form good hooks would be SLOJD, STOOK, and SIZAR.

Another important group of words is 5 letter words starting with C. There are only three Cs in the game, but they are important for five-letter words because they are a three-point tile that cannot be used in any two-letter words. CHYME, CLOZE, and CIVVY are great words to get rid of irritating consonants. CLOZE, specifically, is great because you can hook the Z to an A to make ZA and score at least 27 points even without a premium square.

The 5 letter words starting with E are useful in the end game because E is among the best letters for hooking, with EX, EL, EH, EN, ER, ES, ET, and EF all possibilities. EERIE, EAGLE, and ETHER are all good choices.

Five-letter Words and Wordle

Mastering five-letter words is crucial for solving the daily Wordle puzzle! You'll need to know how to spell 5-letter words correctly. Then you'll need to think of specific characters within those words. Finally, you'll need to find them in your Wordle words. That's why we created the Word Tips Wordle solver!

5-Letter Words FAQ

How many five-letter words are there?

There are 8,996 five-letter words in the Office Scrabble Player's Dictionary, Volume 6.

What are five-letter words that start with E?

EAGLE, EVENS, EXTRA, ENURE, and ENEMY.

What are five-letter words that start with S?

SHADY, SEXTS, SEVEN, SHEER, and SIZES.

A winning Scrabble vocabulary focuses on bingos, but dealing with 5 letter words starting with C, along with 5 letter words starting with S, is essential for maintaining the necessary rack balance to get to those bingos. It should be borne in mind, too, that 5 letter words starting with E can get you out of tight fixes, especially in the end game.