Wordle Letter Frequency & Starter Explorer

Compare Wordle letters by slot and test starters against Xfire’s saved answer list.

Compare starter words head‑to‑head

Type any two 5‑letter words from Xfire’s saved answer or guess lists into the tiles below to see how many unique letters they use and how much of the high‑frequency alphabet they actually cover. Higher coverage scores mean the starter spends more of its letters on useful positions.

Starter A

98.1

5 unique letters • coverage score 98.1

Starter B

96.2

5 unique letters • coverage score 96.2

SLATE edges out CRANE on this simple coverage metric. It spends more of its letters on high‑frequency positions in the answer list.

The comparison uses Xfire’s saved list of 3,212 answer words. For each of the five slots, it adds 40% of the letter’s overall percentage and 60% of its percentage in that slot. Repeated letters contribute in each occupied slot; the unique-letter count is shown separately. This is a comparison score, not a win probability or a forecast of future answers.

Letter frequency reference

These charts use Xfire’s saved answer list. Use them to see which letters show up most often overall and in each slot, and to understand why certain starters tend to perform well.

Position heatmap (top letters per slot)

Letter	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
A	1st 6.2%	2nd 14.8%	3rd 11.1%	4th 6.4%	5th 3.2%
B	1st 7.6%	2nd 0.7%	3rd 2.7%	4th 1.1%	5th 0.6%
C	1st 8.5%	2nd 1.7%	3rd 2.7%	4th 5.3%	5th 1.2%
D	1st 4.9%	2nd 1.0%	3rd 3.7%	4th 2.6%	5th 11.3%
E	1st 2.9%	2nd 10.2%	3rd 6.6%	4th 20.7%	5th 15.7%
F	1st 5.6%	2nd 0.3%	3rd 1.2%	4th 1.4%	5th 1.0%
G	1st 4.9%	2nd 0.5%	3rd 3.0%	4th 3.0%	5th 1.7%
H	1st 3.5%	2nd 5.4%	3rd 0.6%	4th 1.2%	5th 5.0%
I	1st 1.4%	2nd 10.1%	3rd 10.2%	4th 6.4%	5th 0.7%
J	1st 1.1%	2nd 0.1%	3rd 0.2%	4th 0.1%	5th—
K	1st 1.2%	2nd 0.4%	3rd 1.4%	4th 2.7%	5th 4.0%
L	1st 4.1%	2nd 7.3%	3rd 5.2%	4th 6.0%	5th 5.6%
M	1st 4.9%	2nd 1.7%	3rd 3.1%	4th 3.1%	5th 1.7%
N	1st 1.7%	2nd 3.6%	3rd 6.3%	4th 6.8%	5th 5.0%
O	1st 1.9%	2nd 14.0%	3rd 9.2%	4th 5.4%	5th 2.8%
P	1st 6.5%	2nd 2.2%	3rd 3.2%	4th 2.4%	5th 2.7%
Q	1st 0.8%	2nd 0.2%	3rd 0.0%	4th—	5th—
R	1st 4.7%	2nd 9.7%	3rd 7.5%	4th 6.0%	5th 8.8%
S	1st 13.9%	2nd 0.8%	3rd 3.5%	4th 6.5%	5th 1.9%
T	1st 6.3%	2nd 2.8%	3rd 5.7%	4th 5.5%	5th 9.2%
U	1st 1.6%	2nd 8.6%	3rd 6.3%	4th 3.5%	5th 0.2%
V	1st 1.7%	2nd 0.6%	3rd 2.2%	4th 1.7%	5th—
W	1st 3.5%	2nd 1.7%	3rd 1.4%	4th 0.9%	5th 0.6%
X	1st 0.0%	2nd 0.6%	3rd 0.9%	4th 0.1%	5th 0.4%
Y	1st 0.4%	2nd 0.9%	3rd 1.2%	4th 0.2%	5th 16.4%
Z	1st 0.2%	2nd 0.1%	3rd 0.8%	4th 1.0%	5th 0.3%

Most common letters (overall)

49.1% of answers

38.6% of answers

34.2% of answers

29.7% of answers

27.8% of answers

27.0% of answers

25.7% of answers

24.7% of answers

22.4% of answers

21.7% of answers

Once you've picked a favourite starter, use the Word Finder to feed in your greens and yellows, the Hard Mode Helper to check individual guesses, and the Trap Trainer to practise tricky endgames like _ATCH and _IGHT. After the game, run the Rate My Guess analysis to grade your efficiency. On days where the board feels unforgiving, finish with the Daily Hints tool to get a structured, spoiler‑free path toward the answer.

Today's official NYT puzzle is Wordle #1963 for Nov 3, 2026. It sits around difficulty 6/10 in our answer list and is tagged with ACTIONS. Use that as a rough feel for whether today's board leans more toward everyday language or a specific theme. If you're actively solving that puzzle, you can jump straight to today's Wordle hints for Nov 3, 2026 (Puzzle #1963) or open the dedicated hints page for Nov 3, 2026 once you're ready for structured help.

How these letter frequencies work

This explorer uses Xfire’s saved answer list, also used by the Word Finder. The reference charts do not predict future answers or refresh from today’s game. For each answer, we track which letters appear at all and how often they appear in each of the 5 slots. The overall chart counts how many answers contain a letter at least once; the position heatmap shows, slot by slot, how often that letter appears in that exact position across the whole list.

How to use this with starter words

Good Wordle starters tend to do two things: cover several high-frequency letters and place them in slots where they are actually common. The comparison panel lets you enter two candidate starters and see, in a rough way, how much of the highly-used alphabet and positions they touch. Words that spread out across common consonants and vowels tend to get more information per guess, especially when they also line up with patterns you see in our single-letter and two-letter list hubs.

This is not a full entropy calculator or solver. Instead, it is a human-readable way to sanity-check starter options like SLATE, CRANE, TRACE, or SOARE, and understand why they show up so often in strategy discussions.

Wordle Letter Frequency & Starter FAQ

Does this tool tell me the single best starter word?: No. There is no single perfect starter for every situation, and different metrics favour different words. This tool focuses on simple coverage: how many common letters and positions a word touches. It is meant to help you compare reasonable candidates, not crown an absolute winner.
Why do you use the answer list instead of all guesses?: We care most about letters that appear in actual Wordle answers, not obscure guess-only words. Using the answer list for the charts keeps everything focused on patterns that matter for real solutions. The frequencies you see here match the same answer set we use for our pattern lists and Word Finder.
What does the coverage score mean in the comparison?: The coverage score is a simple weighted sum of how often each letter in your starter appears overall and in its specific slot across Xfire’s saved answer list. Higher scores mean the starter spends more of its five letters on high-frequency positions. It’s not a probability of winning, just a quick way to gauge information density.
Can I use non-answer words as starters here?: Yes. The comparison panel scores words present in Xfire’s saved answer or guess lists. Membership here is not live verification of today’s accepted words. The underlying letter frequencies still come from the answer list only, so you are always comparing your chosen starters against how real solutions behave, not just dictionary filler.