Letter frequency in English words
E is the most common letter in English words: it makes up 11.5% of all letters across the 172,823 words in our dictionary. The next most common are S (9.5%), I (9.0%), A (7.6%), R (7.1%). The least common is J at 0.2%. Every figure below is counted from our own word lists, and you can download the data.
Most common letters, A to Z
Three ways to count. Dictionary is each letter's share of all letters in 172,823 words. Everyday uses only the 26,043 most frequently used words, so rare dictionary words count less. In 5-letter answers is the share of 1,815 common five-letter words that contain the letter at least once, which is what matters in Wordle-style games.
| Letter | Dictionary | Chart | Everyday | In 5-letter answers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E | 11.5% | 11.6% | 46% | |
| S | 9.5% | 7.9% | 27% | |
| I | 9.0% | 8.6% | 29% | |
| A | 7.6% | 8.0% | 43% | |
| R | 7.1% | 7.6% | 39% | |
| N | 6.8% | 7.2% | 24% | |
| T | 6.7% | 7.3% | 29% | |
| O | 6.6% | 6.4% | 30% | |
| L | 5.3% | 5.0% | 27% | |
| C | 4.1% | 4.4% | 19% | |
| D | 3.4% | 4.0% | 15% | |
| U | 3.3% | 3.1% | 17% | |
| P | 2.9% | 3.0% | 13% | |
| M | 2.8% | 2.8% | 13% | |
| G | 2.7% | 2.7% | 12% | |
| H | 2.3% | 2.1% | 17% | |
| B | 1.8% | 1.6% | 13% | |
| Y | 1.6% | 1.6% | 15% | |
| F | 1.2% | 1.4% | 8% | |
| V | 1.0% | 1.2% | 7% | |
| K | 0.8% | 0.8% | 7% | |
| W | 0.7% | 0.8% | 7% | |
| Z | 0.5% | 0.2% | 1% | |
| X | 0.3% | 0.3% | 2% | |
| Q | 0.2% | 0.2% | 1% | |
| J | 0.2% | 0.2% | 2% |
S ranks higher in the dictionary (9.5%) than in everyday words (7.9%) because the dictionary lists plurals and verb forms separately: CAT and CATS, WALK and WALKS. That also explains why 37.9% of dictionary words end in S.
Most common letters in 5-letter words
In 1,815 common five-letter words (likely Wordle-style answers: no plain plurals or past tenses), the letters that show up most often are E (46%), A (43%), R (39%), O (30%), T (29%), I (29%). Position matters as much as the letter. The most common letter in each spot:
| Position | 1st letter | 2nd letter | 3rd letter | 4th letter | 5th letter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | S 282 | A 272 | A 234 | E 236 | E 345 |
| #2 | B 150 | O 236 | I 212 | A 152 | Y 221 |
| #3 | C 147 | R 214 | O 166 | N 142 | T 193 |
| #4 | T 118 | E 201 | R 145 | I 135 | R 177 |
| #5 | A 116 | I 160 | E 143 | R 133 | L 122 |
S is the most common first letter and E the most common last letter. Y is the second most common ending, which is why so many answers end in -Y. Vowels cluster in the middle: A leads the second position. For the best opening guesses built from this data, see the best Wordle starting words.
Full table: every letter in every position (counts out of 1,815 words)
| Letter | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 116 | 272 | 234 | 152 | 81 |
| B | 150 | 11 | 48 | 24 | 7 |
| C | 147 | 28 | 45 | 121 | 28 |
| D | 78 | 13 | 62 | 46 | 89 |
| E | 55 | 201 | 143 | 236 | 345 |
| F | 103 | 3 | 15 | 23 | 18 |
| G | 75 | 7 | 62 | 58 | 22 |
| H | 58 | 106 | 10 | 24 | 109 |
| I | 22 | 160 | 212 | 135 | 9 |
| J | 19 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 0 |
| K | 12 | 7 | 12 | 35 | 72 |
| L | 84 | 142 | 88 | 122 | 122 |
| M | 101 | 21 | 47 | 52 | 33 |
| N | 31 | 55 | 126 | 142 | 115 |
| O | 33 | 236 | 166 | 116 | 61 |
| P | 108 | 42 | 40 | 26 | 36 |
| Q | 16 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| R | 87 | 214 | 145 | 133 | 177 |
| S | 282 | 15 | 60 | 125 | 53 |
| T | 118 | 69 | 96 | 107 | 193 |
| U | 21 | 131 | 101 | 62 | 2 |
| V | 37 | 15 | 41 | 35 | 0 |
| W | 50 | 30 | 21 | 15 | 10 |
| X | 2 | 10 | 11 | 2 | 9 |
| Y | 7 | 18 | 17 | 5 | 221 |
| Z | 3 | 2 | 9 | 14 | 3 |
First and last letters
| Rank | Most common first letter | Most common last letter |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | S (11.0%) | S (37.9%) |
| 2 | C (9.4%) | E (9.8%) |
| 3 | P (8.4%) | D (9.2%) |
| 4 | A (6.1%) | Y (7.7%) |
| 5 | R (5.9%) | G (7.6%) |
| 6 | D (5.9%) | R (5.5%) |
| 7 | M (5.6%) | T (4.9%) |
| 8 | B (5.4%) | N (4.4%) |
Shares are of all 172,823 dictionary words. The rarest first letters are X (0.1%), Z (0.3%), Y (0.3%). Browse words starting with any letter or ending with any letter.
Most common letter pairs
Two-letter sequences (bigrams) inside words, as a share of all letter pairs in the dictionary: ES 2.75%, IN 2.35%, ER 2.31%, TI 1.75%, TE 1.43%, RE 1.42%, ON 1.42%, AT 1.38%, NG 1.27%, ED 1.22%, EN 1.21%, ST 1.17%, AL 1.13%, IS 1.11%, LE 1.10%. Endings dominate the list: -ES, -ER, -ING (IN), -TION (TI, ON).
Vowels in 5-letter words
Counting A, E, I, O and U (not Y) across all 8,636 five-letter words in the dictionary:
| Vowels | Words | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 36 | 0.4% |
| 1 | 2,692 | 31.2% |
| 2 | 5,089 | 58.9% |
| 3 | 798 | 9.2% |
| 4 | 21 | 0.2% |
5-letter words with the most vowels: no five-letter word uses five vowels, and only 21 use four: AUDIO, LOUIE, QUEUE, EERIE, ADIEU, AQUAE, AERIE, COOEE, AIOLI, AECIA, AUREI, URAEI, AURAE, AALII, LOOIE, ZOEAE, AREAE, OIDIA, MIAOU, OORIE, OURIE. The most familiar are AUDIO, LOUIE, QUEUE, EERIE, ADIEU.
Common 5-letter words with three vowels: ABOUT, HOUSE, AGAIN, UNION, RADIO, ROUTE, VIDEO, ABOVE, ISSUE, MOVIE, QUEEN, LEAVE, CAUSE, PEACE, VALUE, VOICE, OPERA, ALONE, IMAGE, OCEAN, MARIA, PIECE, AHEAD, PIANO.
5-letter words with no A, E, I, O or U: 36 words, almost all using Y as the vowel: LYNCH, HYMNS, MYTHS, GYPSY, CRYPT, PYGMY, SYNTH, LYMPH, NYMPH, CYSTS, GLYPH, FLYBY, PSYCH, MYRRH, TRYST, SYLPH, WRYLY, SLYLY, SYNCH, SYNCS, GHYLL, DRYLY, SHYLY, WYNNS, CRWTH, WYNDS, XYLYL, STYMY, BYRLS, MYTHY, PHPHT, RYNDS, SYPHS, THYMY, TYPPS, XYSTS.
Download the data
The data is free to use under CC BY 4.0. Please credit WordsUnscrambler and link to this page.
Suggested citation: WordsUnscrambler (2026). Letter frequency in English words. https://wordsunscrambler.site/stats/letter-frequency/
How we counted
The dictionary is the ENABLE word list (public domain), the same list our solvers use: 172,823 words of 2 to 28 letters, without proper nouns, abbreviations or hyphenated words. "Everyday" words are the 26,043 most frequent of those, ranked by how often they appear in English Wikipedia. The five-letter set keeps common words that have a dictionary definition and drops plain plurals and past tenses (RATES, BAKED), because word games rarely use them as answers.
Counting dictionary words is different from counting running text. In books and news, the most common letters are E, T and A, because THE and AND are repeated constantly. In a word list each word counts once, so letter endings such as -S, -ES and -ING push S, I and N up. Use running-text figures for codes and ciphers; use these for word games.
Figures update automatically when our word data changes. More on our sources: methodology.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most common letter in English?
E. It is 11.5% of all letters in our 172,823-word dictionary and 11.6% in everyday words, and it appears in 46% of common five-letter words.
What is the least common letter?
J, at 0.2% of letters, followed by Q, X, Z.
Is Y a vowel?
Y works as both. It is a consonant in YES and YELLOW and a vowel in GYM, MYTH and HAPPY. In word games Y is usually counted as a consonant, but 36 five-letter words, such as LYNCH, HYMNS, MYTHS, rely on Y as their only vowel.
What 5-letter word has the most vowels?
Four is the maximum: no five-letter word uses five vowels. AUDIO, LOUIE, QUEUE, EERIE, ADIEU each have four, and only 21 five-letter words do in total.
Can I use this data?
Yes, under CC BY 4.0: download the CSV files above and credit WordsUnscrambler with a link to this page.