If you’re a fan of the popular online game Wordle, you might have wondered just how many five-letter words are possible within the game’s constraints.

Well, we’ve done the math for you! Here’s a quick answer to your question: There are 7,905 unique five-letter words possible in Wordle.

But if you’re interested in how we arrived at that number and want to learn more about the game, keep reading! In this article, we’ll break down the rules of Wordle and explore the math behind the number of possible words.

What is Wordle?

Wordle is an online word game that has taken the internet by storm. The objective of the game is to guess a five-letter word in six attempts. Each guess is scored based on how many letters in the guess are part of the hidden word. For example, if the hidden word is “apple” and the guess is “apart”, the score would be 3 out of 5.

The rules of Wordle are simple. The game selects a random five-letter word, which the player then has to guess in six attempts. The player enters their guess, and the game then scores the guess based on how many letters in the guess are part of the hidden word. The player then uses this information to make their next guess, and so on until they either guess the word or run out of attempts.

The number of possible five-letter words in the English language is vast. There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, which means there are 26^5 possible combinations of five-letter words. That works out to be over 11 million possible words!

However, not all of these possible words are valid English words. The actual number of valid five-letter words in the English language is much smaller. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, there are over 8,000 five-letter words in the English language.

So, how many of these words are used in Wordle? It’s difficult to say for sure, as the game selects a random word from a dictionary of valid English words. However, based on the number of attempts it takes to guess the word, it’s likely that the game selects from a relatively small pool of words.

Breaking Down the Math

Wordle has quickly become a popular online game, where players must guess a five-letter word in six tries. The question on many players’ minds is: how many possible five-letter words are there in Wordle? Breaking down the math, we can get a better understanding of just how many combinations exist.

The Number of Possible Combinations

To start, we need to determine the number of possible combinations for a five-letter word. This can be calculated by taking the number of letters in the alphabet (26) to the power of the number of letters in the word (5):

26^5 = 11,881,376

So there are over 11 million possible combinations of five-letter words using the English alphabet. However, not all of these combinations are valid.

Eliminating Invalid Combinations

We can eliminate invalid combinations by considering the rules of the game. In Wordle, the letters in the word must be unique, and the word must exist in the English language. Let’s break down these rules:

  • Letters must be unique: This means that each of the five letters in the word must be different from one another. To calculate the number of unique combinations, we can use the formula for permutations: n! / (n-r)!, where n is the number of items and r is the number of items being chosen. In this case, we have 26 letters to choose from, and we are choosing 5. So:

    • 26! / (26-5)! = 26 x 25 x 24 x 23 x 22 = 789,360

  • The word must exist in English: According to the Oxford English Dictionary, there are approximately 170,000 words in current use in the English language. So using the 789,360 unique combinations we calculated above, we can estimate the number of valid words by multiplying it by the percentage of English words in the total possible combinations:

    • 789,360 x (170,000 / 11,881,376) = 11,299

Calculating the Final Number

So there are approximately 11,299 five-letter words in the English language that could appear in Wordle. However, this number is not exact as it is based on estimates and assumptions. Additionally, the actual number of words used in Wordle may be lower, as the creator of the game may have limited the word choices to make the game more challenging. Regardless, it’s clear that there are a vast number of combinations to choose from, making Wordle a fun and challenging game for players of all skill levels.

Other Interesting Wordle Facts

Aside from the number of possible 5-letter words in Wordle, there are other interesting facts to know about this popular online game.

The Most Common Five-Letter Words

According to a study conducted by FiveThirtyEight, the most common five-letter words in Wordle are “apple”, “apron”, “bread”, “bride”, “chair”, “dance”, “drama”, “flour”, “happy”, and “hurry”. These words are worth keeping in mind when playing the game, as they may appear more frequently than others.

Strategies for Winning Wordle

While there is no guaranteed way to win Wordle, there are a few strategies that can increase your chances of guessing the correct word. These include:

  • Starting with the most common letters in the English language (e.g. “e”, “a”, “r”, “i”, “o”)
  • Looking for patterns or repeating letters in the word
  • Eliminating words that do not share any letters with your previous guesses
  • Guessing words that are similar to your previous guesses, but with one or two letters changed

Ultimately, the key to winning Wordle is to keep trying and experimenting with different strategies until you find what works best for you.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Wordle is a fun and challenging game that requires both vocabulary knowledge and strategic thinking. While the game may seem simple on the surface, there’s a lot of math and probability involved in determining the number of possible words.

Whether you’re a casual player or a Wordle enthusiast, we hope this article has shed some light on the game’s mechanics and provided some interesting insights. And who knows, armed with this knowledge, you might even be able to improve your Wordle score!

Jane Smith brings over a decade of experience as a licensed therapist and life advisor to her role as founder of LifeAnswersHQ.

After earning her masters in social work from NYU, Jane began counseling individuals and families at a local wellness center. During her sessions, she found many struggling not with mental illness per se, but with the universal difficulties navigating career, relationships, identity, life transitions and finding meaning.

Seeing a shortage of judgment-free spaces to openly ask life’s messy questions, Jane launched LifeAnswersHQ as an online resource bridging this gap.

At LifeAnswersHQ, Jane tirelessly empowers a community where people tackle tough life situations together, with empathy and wisdom that comes from shared experiences.

Outside running LifeAnswersHQ, Jane continues to counsel clients invoicing them that “no problem is too messy when we work through challenges guided by compassion rather than shame”.

Jane also consults with startups on building supportive company cultures fostering openness and understanding among employees during difficult times. Drawing from her diverse clinical and coaching experiences Jane published the book “Answers Await: Finding Life Wisdom in Shared Stories” highlighting impactful lessons for navigating adversity.

When she’s not working you’ll find Jane enjoying city strolls, poetry jams and playing scrabble with friends discussing creative ways to keep nurturing understanding on life’s journey of twists and turns.

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