The Best Five-Letter Words to Open With
Ranked by coverage: the share of the 13,001-word list that shares at least one letter with the guess. A word with high coverage tells you something about almost any answer. It is a measurable property, not a preference.
How the ranking is built
- · Only words in the common list — an opener you would never think of is useless.
- · Only words with five different letters, since a repeat wastes a slot.
- · Scored against the full list, not a puzzle answer list, so it holds for any five-letter game.
Top 100 openers
- 1aloes95.7%
- 2aeons95.7%
- 3aeros95.6%
- 4arose95.6%
- 5aesir95.2%
- 6arise95.2%
- 7raise95.2%
- 8reais95.2%
- 9serai95.2%
- 10paseo95.0%
- 11anise94.7%
- 12saine94.7%
- 13aisle94.7%
- 14ayres94.5%
- 15sayer94.5%
- 16years94.5%
- 17yates94.3%
- 18yeast94.3%
- 19aides94.2%
- 20aside94.2%
- 21ideas94.2%
- 22paise94.2%
- 23sepia94.2%
- 24amies94.1%
- 25abies94.1%
- 26soave94.0%
- 27aegis94.0%
- 28ursae94.0%
- 29saute94.0%
- 30usnea93.9%
- 31lyase93.8%
- 32osier93.8%
- 33yeahs93.7%
- 34earns93.7%
- 35nares93.7%
- 36nears93.7%
- 37saner93.7%
- 38snare93.7%
- 39arles93.6%
- 40earls93.6%
- 41lares93.6%
- 42laser93.6%
- 43lears93.6%
- 44rales93.6%
- 45reals93.6%
- 46seral93.6%
- 47cause93.6%
- 48sauce93.6%
- 49solei93.6%
- 50lanes93.5%
- 51leans93.5%
- 52neals93.5%
- 53slane93.5%
- 54antes93.5%
- 55nates93.5%
- 56stane93.5%
- 57aster93.4%
- 58rates93.4%
- 59reast93.4%
- 60stare93.4%
- 61stear93.4%
- 62tares93.4%
- 63taser93.4%
- 64tears93.4%
- 65teras93.4%
- 66eosin93.4%
- 67noise93.4%
- 68hause93.3%
- 69least93.3%
- 70slate93.3%
- 71stale93.3%
- 72steal93.3%
- 73stela93.3%
- 74tales93.3%
- 75tesla93.3%
- 76adios93.2%
- 77ostia93.2%
- 78acers93.1%
- 79acres93.1%
- 80cares93.1%
- 81carse93.1%
- 82races93.1%
- 83scare93.1%
- 84serac93.1%
- 85acnes93.0%
- 86canes93.0%
- 87scena93.0%
- 88sayed93.0%
- 89samey93.0%
- 90seamy93.0%
- 91avise93.0%
- 92caste93.0%
- 93cates93.0%
- 94cesta93.0%
- 95bayes93.0%
- 96usage93.0%
- 97orate92.9%
- 98pause92.9%
- 99ashen92.9%
- 100hanse92.9%
Why vowels dominate the top
Every word in the top ten leans on the letters that appear most often across the whole list. S alone is in 46% of five-letter words. Stacking three or four of the top six into one guess is the whole trick — and it is why the best openers look like odd little words rather than good ones.
Coverage is not the same as information. A guess that touches everything narrows less per letter than one that splits the field evenly. Coverage is the simple measure, and it is the one worth knowing first.