Key findingsThe dictionary holds 172,830 words with an average length of 9.1 letters. The most common length is 8 letters. E is the most frequent letter, and S starts more words than any other letter. 16.6% of all words share their exact letters with at least one other word.
How many words of each length
Word counts climb steeply from two letters to a peak at 8 letters, then fall away. There are only 103 two-letter words, which is why serious players learn all of them, but 23,109 seven-letter words, the length of a full rack and a 50 point bingo.
| Letters | Words | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 103 | 0.1% |
| 3 | 972 | 0.6% |
| 4 | 3,903 | 2.3% |
| 5 | 8,636 | 5.0% |
| 6 | 15,232 | 8.8% |
| 7 | 23,109 | 13.4% |
| 8 | 28,420 | 16.4% |
| 9 | 24,873 | 14.4% |
| 10 | 20,302 | 11.7% |
| 11 | 15,504 | 9.0% |
| 12 | 11,358 | 6.6% |
| 13 | 7,827 | 4.5% |
| 14 | 5,127 | 3.0% |
| 15 | 3,192 | 1.8% |
| 16 | 1,943 | 1.1% |
| 17 | 1,127 | 0.7% |
| 18 | 594 | 0.3% |
| 19 | 329 | 0.2% |
| 20 | 160 | 0.1% |
| 21 | 62 | 0.0% |
| 22 | 30 | 0.0% |
| 23 | 13 | 0.0% |
| 24 | 9 | 0.0% |
| 25 | 2 | 0.0% |
| 27 | 2 | 0.0% |
| 28 | 1 | 0.0% |
Letter frequency vs Scrabble tiles
We counted every letter in every word and compared it with the 100 tiles in a Scrabble set. The letters the dictionary uses most, relative to their tile supply, are S, C, L. The letters most generously supplied for how rarely they appear are A, O, W. In practice that means an S or an I on your rack has more words waiting for it than its tile count suggests.
| Letter | Share of letters | Tiles in set | Share of tiles | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E | 11.5% | 12 | 12.2% | 1 |
| S | 9.5% | 4 | 4.1% | 1 |
| I | 9.0% | 9 | 9.2% | 1 |
| A | 7.6% | 9 | 9.2% | 1 |
| R | 7.1% | 6 | 6.1% | 1 |
| N | 6.8% | 6 | 6.1% | 1 |
| T | 6.7% | 6 | 6.1% | 1 |
| O | 6.6% | 8 | 8.2% | 1 |
| L | 5.3% | 4 | 4.1% | 1 |
| C | 4.1% | 2 | 2.0% | 3 |
| D | 3.4% | 4 | 4.1% | 2 |
| U | 3.3% | 4 | 4.1% | 1 |
| P | 2.9% | 2 | 2.0% | 3 |
| M | 2.8% | 2 | 2.0% | 3 |
| G | 2.7% | 3 | 3.1% | 2 |
| H | 2.3% | 2 | 2.0% | 4 |
| B | 1.8% | 2 | 2.0% | 3 |
| Y | 1.6% | 2 | 2.0% | 4 |
| F | 1.2% | 2 | 2.0% | 4 |
| V | 1.0% | 2 | 2.0% | 4 |
| K | 0.8% | 1 | 1.0% | 5 |
| W | 0.7% | 2 | 2.0% | 4 |
| Z | 0.5% | 1 | 1.0% | 10 |
| X | 0.3% | 1 | 1.0% | 8 |
| Q | 0.2% | 1 | 1.0% | 10 |
| J | 0.2% | 1 | 1.0% | 8 |
Most common first letters and endings
S begins 11.0% of all words. Among words of five letters or more, the most common three-letter ending is -ING, found on 12,555 words, which reflects how many words are plurals and verb forms of a shorter root.
| First letter | Words | Share |
|---|---|---|
| S | 18,988 | 11.0% |
| C | 16,229 | 9.4% |
| P | 14,566 | 8.4% |
| A | 10,456 | 6.0% |
| R | 10,159 | 5.9% |
| D | 10,149 | 5.9% |
| M | 9,628 | 5.6% |
| B | 9,279 | 5.4% |
| T | 8,747 | 5.1% |
| E | 7,068 | 4.1% |
| Ending | Words |
|---|---|
| -ING | 12,555 |
| -ERS | 5,819 |
| -SES | 5,364 |
| -IES | 4,977 |
| -ESS | 3,697 |
| -ONS | 3,661 |
| -ION | 3,020 |
| -TED | 2,879 |
| -TES | 2,344 |
| -LLY | 1,978 |
Highest-scoring word at each length
Base Scrabble score, before premium squares. Short high scorers lean on Z, Q, X and J, while longer ones combine two of them.
| Letters | Word | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | ZA | 11 |
| 3 | ZAX | 19 |
| 4 | JAZZ | 29 |
| 5 | JAZZY | 33 |
| 6 | PIZAZZ | 35 |
| 7 | ZYZZYVA | 43 |
| 8 | ZYZZYVAS | 44 |
The largest anagram families
12,303 groups of words share their exact letters. The biggest group has 12 members. Learning these families is how tournament players find bingos: one set of seven tiles can hide several playable words.
| Size | Words |
|---|---|
| 12 | APERS, APRES, ASPER, PARES, PARSE, PEARS, PRASE, PRESA, RAPES, REAPS, SPARE, SPEAR |
| 11 | ALERTS, ALTERS, ARTELS, ESTRAL, LASTER, RATELS, SALTER, SLATER, STALER, STELAR, TALERS |
| 10 | LEAST, SETAL, SLATE, STALE, STEAL, STELA, TAELS, TALES, TEALS, TESLA |
| 9 | ANESTRI, ANTSIER, NASTIER, RATINES, RETAINS, RETINAS, RETSINA, STAINER, STEARIN |
| 9 | CAPERS, CRAPES, ESCARP, PACERS, PARSEC, RECAPS, SCRAPE, SECPAR, SPACER |
| 9 | ESTRIN, INERTS, INSERT, INTERS, NITERS, NITRES, SINTER, TRIENS, TRINES |
| 9 | PALEST, PALETS, PASTEL, PETALS, PLATES, PLEATS, SEPTAL, STAPLE, TEPALS |
| 8 | ARLES, EARLS, LARES, LASER, LEARS, RALES, REALS, SERAL |
| 8 | ASPERS, PARSES, PASSER, PRASES, REPASS, SPARES, SPARSE, SPEARS |
| 8 | ATES, EAST, EATS, ETAS, SATE, SEAT, SETA, TEAS |
Rare and unusual words, counted
- 2,528 words contain a Q, and 30 of them have no U after the Q (see them).
- 20 words have no vowels at all, not even Y (see them).
- 101 words of three or more letters are palindromes (see them).
- 2,462 words contain all five vowels A, E, I, O and U (see them).
- The longest words have 28 letters: ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACETATES, ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHICALLY, ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACETATE.
Download the data and cite this page
All of the tables above, plus every anagram family of up to 50 groups, are in one CSV file you can open in Excel or Google Sheets: word-game-statistics.csv.
The data is free to reuse. If you quote it, please link to this page. You can copy this credit:
Method. Source: the ENABLE word list (public domain) plus QI, ZA, FE, KI, OI, OK and EW, 172,830 words in total. Letter shares count every letter of every word once. Tile counts are the standard English Scrabble set of 100 tiles, including 2 blanks, which are left out of the shares. Scores are base tile values. Read more on our editorial standards page.
Frequently asked questions
Where do these numbers come from?
Every figure is calculated from our dictionary of 172,830 words, the public-domain ENABLE list plus a few accepted additions, each time the site is built. Nothing is estimated or typed in by hand, so if the word list changes, the numbers on this page change with it.
Can I use these statistics in my article or class?
Yes. You are welcome to quote the numbers, recreate the charts or use the CSV. Please credit the source with a link to this page, for example: <a href="https://wordsolvertool.com/word-game-statistics/">Word Game Statistics, WordSolverTool</a>.
Why do letter frequencies differ from Scrabble tile counts?
The tile set was designed in the 1930s from letter counts in newspaper text, where common short words like THE and AND dominate. A dictionary counts every word once, so long words with many suffixes, such as -NESS and -INGS, push letters like S and I higher than the tiles suggest.
What counts as an anagram family?
A group of two or more words that use exactly the same letters, such as LISTEN, SILENT, ENLIST and TINSEL. The table lists the largest groups in the dictionary.
Will this page be updated?
Yes. It is rebuilt with the rest of the site, and the date at the top shows when the numbers last changed. Major updates are listed on our What's new page.