What a five letter word finder does
A five letter word finder searches a dictionary for words that fit the clues you already have. Maybe you know the word starts with S, has an A somewhere, and definitely doesn’t contain R. Running through possibilities in your head is slow and easy to get wrong; the finder checks all 8,626 five-letter words in its list against every clue at once and shows only the ones that fit.
It’s useful for daily word puzzles, crosswords, word games with letter tiles, and any time a word is on the tip of your tongue. The search runs in your browser, so results update as you type.
How to use the finder
- Type the letters you know in their positions. Use ? or _ for each unknown letter, so a word starting with A and ending in LE is
A??LE. - Add letters the word must include when you know a letter is in the word but not where.
- Add letters to exclude that you’ve ruled out.
- Open “More filters” for starts with, ends with, a letter sequence, or a different word length.
- Tap any word to copy it, or use “Copy all” to copy the whole list. The small number on each word is its letter-tile points; sort by “Most points” to see the best scorers first.
Tick “Hide likely plurals” to drop words like TAPES and BOXES, which daily puzzles rarely use as answers. Every filter is optional and they all work together. For a step-by-step walkthrough with more examples, see how to use the five letter word finder.
How pattern matching works
A pattern has exactly one character per letter of the word. Letters are fixed in place; wildcards stand for any single letter. The finder accepts ?, _, ., * and - as wildcards, ignores spaces, and doesn’t care about upper or lower case, so A??LE, a _ _ l e and a..le are the same search.
If your pattern has the wrong number of positions, the finder tells you instead of quietly returning nothing. When you only know one letter’s position, patterns such as _A___, __A__, ___A_ and ____A find words with A in the second, third, fourth or fifth place.
How included letters work
“Must include” is for letters you know are in the word when you don’t know where. Every included letter has to appear, in any order and any position. Typing a letter twice, such as EE, means the word must contain at least two Es. That’s the easiest way to find words with repeated letters.
How excluded letters work
Excluded letters remove every word that contains them. There’s one exception, and it matters in word games. If a letter is excluded but is also fixed in your pattern or listed as included, the finder reads it as “no extra copies of this letter.” For example, the pattern ?E??? with E excluded finds words with an E in second place and no other E. That’s how a word game shows a letter that appears once when you guessed it twice.
How starting and ending letters work
“Starts with” and “Ends with” take one or more letters and fix them at the beginning or end of the word. It’s the same as typing them into the pattern, but quicker when that’s all you know. Starting with CR is equivalent to the pattern CR???. If they conflict with your pattern, for example a pattern starting with C and “Starts with” set to T, the finder points out the clash.
“Contains sequence” is different from included letters: the letters must appear side by side in that exact order. IGH matches LIGHT and NIGHT but not a word that merely contains I, G and H apart.
Examples
These searches run against the same word list as the finder. The counts are calculated from that list. Select a search to open it in the finder.
A first, L fourth, E last; positions two and three unknown.
16 matches, including abele, addle, agile, aisle, amble, amole.
A in the middle, with no S or T anywhere.
288 matches, including abaca, abaci, aback, abaka, abamp, acari.
Contains O and U somewhere, ends with D.
16 matches, including aloud, bound, cloud, could, found, gourd.
starts with SH, include E, exclude A
Starts SH, contains E, has no A.
33 matches, including sheds, sheen, sheep, sheer, sheet, sheik.
Frequently asked questions
Which word list does the finder use?
It uses the ENABLE word list (Enhanced North American Benchmark LExicon), a public-domain list of English words widely used in word games, with a small number of slurs removed. It includes plurals, past tenses and some uncommon words, so not every result will be a familiar everyday word. See the About page for details.
Why do I see words I’ve never heard of?
The list is broad on purpose so you don’t miss a valid answer. Some games only accept common words, so if an unfamiliar word appears, a more familiar match from the same list is usually the better guess.
How do I find words with a letter in a specific position?
Use the pattern field. Put the letter where it belongs and a ? everywhere else, for example ??A?? for words with A in the middle.
How do I handle a letter that appears twice?
Type it twice in “Must include” (for example LL), or place both copies in the pattern. If you know a letter appears only once, add it to “Exclude” as well, and the finder will reject words with extra copies.
I have green, yellow and grey tiles. Which tool should I use?
The Wordle solver. Type each guess and tap the tiles to match the colours; it handles “right letter, wrong spot” and repeated letters for you, and suggests a next guess.
I have a jumble of letters. Can you unscramble them?
Yes. The word unscrambler lists every word you can spell from your letters, with blank tiles supported.
Can I search for words that aren’t five letters long?
Yes. Open “More filters” and choose 4, 6 or 7 letters. Five letters is the default because it’s what most people are looking for.
Does the finder send my searches anywhere?
No. Filtering happens entirely in your browser. The address bar updates with your search so you can bookmark or share it, but the finder doesn’t send searches to a server. The Privacy Policy explains what data the site does handle.