I've analyzed every Wordle answer used — here's what I found

Last year, my former colleague Mark McLaren downloaded the entire list of every Wordle answer to look for patterns and clues that could help you possibly solve the puzzle faster.

Intrigued by his findings, I decided to take a different approach and analyze every Wordle answer that's been used. After all, we've a ways to go before every one of the possible 2,309 answers have been used, and now that Wordle is owned by The New York Times, the order isn't always the same.

With that, here's my Moneyball-style analysis of the Wordle answers used thus far. I'll try and keep this story up to date as more answers are revealed.

Of course, if you're stumped on the game, be sure to check out our today's Wordle answer story, which is updated daily.

One quick note before we start: this analysis is of every Wordle answer used from the start to May 25, 2023, and includes those days when there were two answers. I plan to update this story periodically as we get new puzzle solutions.

Most common letters

As you can see from the list below, E is by far the most common letter used, appearing 383 times (and counting), followed by A with 315. Also topping 200 are R (283), O (250), T (238), and L (206). That's the same order as we found when we analyzed every Wordle answer.

I was actually surprised that S (175) was the eighth-most popular letter — certainly that it was outranked by I.

Those high-value Scrabble letters — J and Q — are the least frequently used letters, so don't expect to find them all that often.

Most common letters by position

Next, let's look at where letters have appeared the most, starting with the first letter: S has been used the most often — 97 times — followed by C (65), A (54), B (54), and T (47).

For the second letter, O is the most popular, with 100 appearances, followed by A (90), R (84), L (70), and E (66).

When it comes to the middle letter, A (97) is the most common, followed by O (92). Then, there's a drop-off to I (78), E (56), and U (53).

In the fourth position, E is by far the most common letter at 88 appearances, followed by R (61), A (60), I (52), and N (50).

When it comes to an ending, you're most likely to find E here, as it's shown up 138 times — nearly 20% of the time. Next is Y (96), followed by T (87), R (64), L (46), and D and H at 41 apiece. After that, things drop off pretty quickly.

So, how does that compare to every Wordle answer? It's slightly different — right now, O has been used the most as the second letter, rather than A.

Most common starting combos

If you plan to start your guess with ST, you'll have better odds of hitting the correct letters than with any other pair. That's because ST has been used 21 times so far.

That also tracks with our analysis of every Wordle answer, in which ST shows up 65 times. So, ST has been used about 3.2% of the time, but it's only in 3% of the words in total.

If you choose to end your word with ER, you'll have even better luck: that combination has been used 39 times so far, and is more than double the next-most popular combo, RY (17). That's about 5% of all Wordle answers thus far. However, it appears in 6.1% of every possible Wordle answer (eventually, it will appear 141 times), so the frequency at which it shows up should increase ever so slightly.

Double letters

What are the chances you'll see double letters when you play Wordle? Not great. Double letters have appeared just 86 times so far — roughly 12% of the time. That should increase to about 15% by the time Wordle has used every five-letter word, assuming the New York Times doesn't repeat a word.

And when they have, they've been largely limited to a few selections. EE and OO have appeared the most often, at 16 and 14 apiece, followed by LL (13) and SS (11). After that, it's all single-digit appearances.

Vowels vs. consonants

Where are you most likely to see a vowel versus a consonant? It all depends on how you feel about the letter Y.

Regardless of your opinion, the vast majority of Wordle answers thus far have both started and ended with a consonant, rather than a vowel. If you consider Y to be a vowel, then there's about a 60% chance that the last letter is a consonant; if you think Y is a consonant, that figure jumps to 74%.

However, the second and third letters are as likely — if not more — to be a vowel, rather than a consonant.

The fourth letter is twice as likely to be a consonant than a vowel.

Three of one letter

Exceedingly rare is when three of a single letter appear in a word. In fact, it's only happened four times so far: ERROR, FLUFF, MUMMY, and SISSY.

What would you like to see?

Hopefully, this gives you some greater insight into all the Wordle letters used. It was a great way for me to dive into a lot of spreadsheets, that's for sure. Leave some notes in the comments as to what other analysis you'd like, and I'll try and add it to the story.