Five-letter candidate analysis

5-Letter Word Frequency Analyzer

Opening-word statistics are useful when the board is empty, but once a puzzle has been reduced to a small family, the relevant frequencies change. Paste the surviving five-letter words here to see which letters recur across that family, where those letters tend to sit and which candidate words cover the largest share of the uncertainty that remains.

Analyze a shortlist

Quick answer

When should you use a word frequency analyzer?

Use it after you already have a plausible candidate list. If the board has narrowed the answer to ten words, general English letter frequency is no longer the most important statistic; the letters inside those ten words are. The analyzer helps identify which letters divide that specific family and which positions carry the most uncertainty.

Analyze your remaining candidates

Paste the shortlist, not the whole dictionary

Separate words with spaces, commas or new lines. Only playable five-letter Wurdella words are counted, and duplicate entries are removed before the statistics are calculated.

Candidate words

3 playable candidates · 2 unrecognized or duplicate entries ignored

Letters that cover the most candidates

A letter is counted once per word here, even when that word contains two copies. That makes the percentage answer a practical question: how much of this shortlist would the letter test?

3 words · 100%

2 words · 67%

1 words · 33%

Most common letter in each square

Position 1

1 candidates

Position 2

2 candidates

Position 3

3 candidates

Position 4

1 candidates

Position 5

3 candidates

Best testers inside this shortlist

Coverage rewards distinct letters that recur across the submitted candidates; the position score breaks close ties. This is a diagnostic ranking, not a promise that the first word is the answer.

1
CRANE
five distinct letters
Coverage 12
Position 10
2
TRACE
five distinct letters
Coverage 12
Position 10
3
SHARE
five distinct letters
Coverage 11
Position 9

How to use the analyzer in a real five-letter round

Build the shortlist

Use the board, your own notes or the Pattern Solver to identify words that obey all known constraints.

Paste only plausible words

The results are only as meaningful as the list. Remove candidates that violate a green, reuse an excluded letter or put a yellow back in a rejected position.

Find the separating letters

Look for letters that occur in many—but not all—candidates. Those characters often split the family more efficiently than letters that appear everywhere.

Choose the next move

Decide whether a direct candidate or a broader testing word gives the best value for the rows you have left.

Coverage and probability are not the same thing

Suppose R appears in eight of ten candidates. Testing R may be informative because the result can split the family, but that does not prove the eight R-words are collectively eight times as likely as the other two. The analyzer describes the submitted set; it does not assign hidden answer probabilities.

This distinction matters because a high-frequency letter can still be strategically weak if it appears in every candidate. A character found in ten out of ten words tells you almost nothing about which one is correct. A letter appearing in five of ten can produce a much cleaner division.

A candidate can solve and test at the same time

One advantage of comparing words inside the shortlist is that a high-information candidate can still be the answer. If the guess hits, the round ends; if it misses, its letters may eliminate several neighboring possibilities.

A sacrifice word outside the shortlist can sometimes test more distinguishing letters, but it spends a row on a word you already know cannot win. That can be smart with four guesses left and reckless with one. The remaining row count changes the value of information.

Worked example: a family that shares the same ending

Imagine the board has narrowed the answer to a group such as BRICK, CRICK, PRICK and another nearby candidate with the same final structure. The letters R, I, C and K are poor separators because they are shared across the family. The first letter carries almost all of the remaining uncertainty.

A frequency table makes that visible immediately. Instead of choosing another word packed with letters you already know, you want a guess that tests the distinguishing initials. The same logic appears in many word families: when several candidates share four positions, raw alphabet-wide frequency becomes almost irrelevant.

The principle

Frequency is useful only when it measures the uncertainty you still have. Count the letters that distinguish the remaining words, not the letters you have already effectively confirmed.

Total letter frequency

This answers: “How many candidates contain this letter?” It is useful for measuring broad coverage across the shortlist.

Position frequency

This asks where the character appears. Once greens and yellow-position exclusions are known, position-level counts can be far more informative than totals.

Candidate coverage

This asks how much of the current family a word tests. A candidate using several separating letters can outperform one filled with letters common to every surviving word.

Repeated letters need special care

A simple frequency count can be misleading when one word contains a letter twice. Two copies in one candidate do not provide the same coverage as the same letter appearing once in two different candidates. What matters strategically is whether the guess can distinguish answer families and whether the board already supports duplication.

If repeated-letter behavior is the main problem in the round, use the five-letter repeated-letter list and the repeated-letter strategy guide alongside the analyzer.

Which Wurdella tool should you use?

Situation	Best tool	Why
The board is empty	Starting Words Calculator	Compares opening coverage against the wider word bank.
You have greens, yellows and exclusions	Pattern Solver	Turns board constraints into plausible candidates.
You already have a small candidate family	Frequency Analyzer	Shows which letters and positions separate that specific family.
You know a start, ending or exact position	Word Finder	Lets you browse word families by exact letter pattern.

Use the analyzer for deliberate practice, not every guess

The fastest way to improve is not to outsource every decision to a tool. Play several unlimited rounds normally, then save the boards where you got trapped inside a word family. Reconstruct the candidate set afterward and use the analyzer to see which letter you failed to test. Over time, those patterns become easier to notice without any helper.

For a broader training plan, read the Wurdella strategy hub or practice several rounds in unlimited mode.

Word frequency analyzer FAQ

What does the Wurdella Word Frequency Analyzer do?

It analyzes the five-letter words you paste into the tool and compares how often letters occur across that shortlist, how often they appear in specific positions and which candidate words cover a large share of the remaining uncertainty.

Does the analyzer predict the answer?

No. The analyzer describes the candidate list you provide. It does not know a hidden answer, use secret answer weights or guarantee that the highest-ranked candidate will be correct.

Should I use total letter frequency or position frequency?

Use both. Total frequency helps identify letters that separate many candidates, while position frequency becomes especially valuable when the board has already fixed or strongly suggested a word shape.

Can repeated letters change the ranking?

Yes. A repeated letter may be strategically important if duplication is common in the surviving candidates, but raw character counts can overstate coverage if the same letter appears twice in one word. Read the shortlist in context.

How is this different from the Pattern Solver?

The Pattern Solver helps create a candidate list from green, yellow and excluded-letter constraints. The Frequency Analyzer compares the information structure inside a list you already have.

How is this different from the Starting Words Calculator?

The Starting Words Calculator evaluates opening words before a board has evidence. The Frequency Analyzer is most useful later, when only a smaller family of possible answers remains.

Have a shortlist already?

Paste it into the analyzer above, compare the separating letters, then return to the board with a specific reason for your next guess.

Analyze my candidates