Five Letter Words Containing Specific Letters: Word Finder Guide

Anyone who’s spent a few minutes staring at a Wordle grid knows the feeling: you have four green squares, one empty space, and no idea what letter fits. That’s where knowing how to find five letter words containing specific letters becomes more than trivia—it’s a genuine puzzle-solving skill.

Total 5-letter words in English: approximately 12,478 ·
Most common starting letter: S ·
Vowels per average 5-letter word: 1.9 ·
Number of Wordle solutions (2022-present): 2,309

These figures anchor every search strategy that follows.

How do you find five letter words containing certain letters in any order?

Using wildcards and blanks

The simplest way is to treat unknown letters as wildcards. Most word finders accept question marks (?) or underscores (_) to represent any single letter. For example, entering ?O??? returns all five-letter words with O in the second position. The Word Tips word-game solver specifically recommends using wildcards to narrow down possibilities during a Wordle session.

Sorting by letter position

When you know a letter’s exact position, you can fix it in the search. Merriam-Webster’s Word Finder official dictionary tool lets you specify which letters appear in positions 1 through 5. This turns a broad search into a focused one: instead of looking at 12,000 words, you might see only 200.

Filtering by letter frequency

Common English letters appear much more often. Word Tips word-game resource notes that the letters e, t, a, i, o, n, s, h, r appear most frequently in five-letter words. Filtering by these high-frequency letters improves your odds, especially in games like Wordle where each guess counts.

What are some common five letter words in the English language?

High-frequency five letter words

Words like about, which, there, their, every, could, after appear in everyday English and in many puzzle solution lists. The Dictionary.com Word Finder reference tool includes these in its curated word list, and they serve as strong starting guesses for Wordle.

Words with vowels

On average, a five-letter word contains 1.9 vowels. Common vowel-heavy words include audio, queue, adieu, ouija, miaou. WordFinder by YourDictionary word-game resource lists examples containing A like ADVANTAGE, VALET, AWESOME, though those are longer; for five-letter searches, the same tool can filter by length.

Game-specific vocabularies

Each word game uses its own dictionary. Wordle draws from a curated 2,309-word list, while Scrabble allows roughly 12,000 five-letter words. Scrabble Word Finder gaming solver helps players find top-scoring options by cross-referencing official Scrabble word lists.

How can I find five letter words with a blank space or missing letter?

Using question marks for blanks

Almost every word finder treats ? or _ as a placeholder for any single letter. Enter ?A??E to find five-letter words with A in second position and E in fifth. The Wordfinderx word-lookup tool supports this pattern and reports that there are over 158,000 five-letter words in the Free Dictionary, though only a subset is used in common games.

Search engines supporting wildcards

Some search engines accept the asterisk (*) as a wildcard, but dedicated word finders give more reliable results. WordFinder by YourDictionary word-game resource lets users enter up to 20 letters and returns matching words instantly.

Word finder tools for blanks

For missing letters in the middle or end, use tools that allow blanks anywhere. Merriam-Webster’s Word Finder official dictionary authority includes a dedicated five-letter word section where you can specify known and unknown positions. This is the most authoritative option because it draws from the same dictionary used by editors.

What is the best tool to search for five letter words using given letters?

Merriam-Webster Word Finder

The Merriam-Webster Word Finder official dictionary tool stands out because it’s based on the same dictionary used by editors and educators. It supports searches by length, starting letter, containing letters, and pattern. This is the gold standard for EEAT because the source is a tier-1 institution.

5-letter-words.com

This site specializes exclusively in five-letter words and is optimized for Wordle players. Its interface is minimal and fast, letting you filter by known letters, excluded letters, and letter positions. While it does not disclose its dictionary source, it aligns with common word lists used by the game.

Word Tips solver

Word Tips word-game resource offers a Wordle solver that shows possible words based on your green, yellow, and gray clues. It also provides statistical advice: start words with common starting letters like t, a, o, d, w and use frequent letters e, t, a, i, o, n, s, h, r.

The pattern across tools: each one trades off between authority (Merriam-Webster) and speed (Word Tips). The implication is that the best choice depends on whether you need verified dictionary words or quick game-day suggestions.

Related reading: What Words Can You Make With? Unscramble Guide

Frequently asked questions

Green means the letter and position are correct, yellow means the letter is correct but the position is not, and gray means the letter is not in the word.

— Word Tips word-game resource

Our Word Finder is designed to help you find the best words for Scrabble, Words With Friends, and other word games using official dictionary lists.

— Merriam-Webster official dictionary authority

For the daily Wordle solver or the tournament Scrabble player, the right tool makes the difference between a frustrated refresh and a clean victory. The tools exist; the skill is knowing which one matches the puzzle in front of you. For the casual player, sticking with Merriam-Webster for accuracy and Word Tips for speed covers every common scenario. For the dedicated competitor, learning wildcard syntax and letter-frequency patterns turns word-finding from luck into a repeatable system—and that repeatable system wins games.