You're staring at a grid of gray boxes. It’s your fifth guess. You know the "S" is at the start and the "Y" is at the end. You’ve tried "SASSY." You’ve tried "SOPHY." Now you’re just mashing keys, praying for a green highlight. We’ve all been there. But here’s the thing about the New York Times’ favorite daily obsession: the pool of answers is shrinking every single night at midnight. If you feel like the game is getting weirder, you aren't crazy.
Looking for 5 letter words not used in Wordle yet has become a subculture of its own among enthusiasts who want to maintain their streaks. Since Josh Wardle first released the game and the NYT eventually bought it for a "low seven-figure" sum, the original list of 2,309 answers has been slowly ticking down.
There are thousands of words left, technically. But not all of them are "Wordle words." The game uses a curated list of common vocabulary, meaning you probably won’t see "XYLYL" as a winning answer anytime soon. Josh Wardle’s partner, Palak Shah, originally helped filter the massive list of 12,000+ five-letter English words down to the ones people actually recognize. This leaves a finite, ever-dwindling pile of possibilities.
The weird math of what's left
The original list had roughly 2,300 words. We are several years into this. If you do the math—365 days a year—we've burned through over a thousand. We’re essentially halfway through the "goldilocks" zone of words that are neither too obscure nor too easy.
What remains? A lot of plurals that don't end in S (because the NYT famously avoids simple -S plurals as answers) and words with tricky double letters. People often complain that the game is "rigged" when a word like "FOLLY" or "MUMMY" appears, but that's just the nature of the remaining inventory. The 5 letter words not used in Wordle yet are increasingly the ones that trap you in a "hard mode" nightmare. Think about the "-IGHT" or "-ATCH" clusters. If "FIGHT," "LIGHT," and "MIGHT" are gone, but "SIGHT" and "TIGHT" remain, your sixth guess is basically a coin flip.
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Why some words will never be the answer
It’s a common misconception that every five-letter word is a candidate. It isn't. The NYT removed several words from the original list to avoid controversy or offense. They also tend to skip words that are strictly British or strictly American if they’re too regional, though they haven't been perfectly consistent there.
If you’re hunting for 5 letter words not used in Wordle yet, ignore the following:
- Past tense verbs ending in -ED (mostly)
- Plural nouns ending in -S or -ES
- Words that are primarily used as slurs or are highly offensive
- Obscure scientific jargon that requires a PhD to define
Honestly, the editors at the Times, specifically Tracy Bennett, have a lot of leeway. They can move words around. They can add new ones. They’ve even changed the answer on the fly when a scheduled word felt too close to a major news event. This "human touch" makes predicting the next word a bit like trying to read a stranger's mood.
The "Trap" words still waiting in the wings
Let’s talk about "The Trap." You know it. You have _ _ N E R. It could be LINER, MINER, FINER, DINER, WINER, or PINER. If three of those are 5 letter words not used in Wordle yet, you are in trouble.
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Statisticians who track the game—yes, people actually do this—noted that words with high frequency in common English are being picked off first. This leaves the "junk" behind. We are entering an era of Wordle where the answers might feel slightly more "literary" or "archaic."
Take a word like "QUOTH." It’s five letters. It’s English. Is it a Wordle word? Probably not. But "GULCH"? "SNARE"? "REBUS"? Those are prime territory. If you want to get ahead of the curve, you have to stop thinking about what words you use and start thinking about which common words haven't appeared.
How to find out if a word has been used
You don't need a supercomputer. Several community-run archives, like the "Wordle Archive" or various fan-made trackers, keep a running tally. Before you burn a guess on "CRANE" or "ADIEU," you should know that many of the most popular starting words have already had their day in the sun as the actual answer. "CRANE" was used back in 2022. "ADIEU" is a great opener, but it will likely never be the "winner" because the NYT leans toward words with more consonants for the actual solution.
A quick way to check is to look at the historical data provided by sites like Rock Paper Shotgun or NYT's own Wordle Bot. They often reference whether a word is "due" or if it’s already been "spent."
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The psychology of the remaining list
There is a certain anxiety in the community about what happens when the list runs out. We have maybe three or four years left of unique words. Will they reset? Will they start using "GLYPH" and "LYMPH" every week?
The editors have hinted that they can always add words. Language evolves. "CRIZE" isn't a word, but "VAPED" is (though it ends in -ED). As culture shifts, the dictionary of "acceptable" words expands. For now, the focus remains on the 5 letter words not used in Wordle yet that carry that classic, slightly evocative feel. Words like "SPORE," "FEAST," or "WHARF."
Practical strategy for the "Post-Common" era
Since the "easy" words are mostly gone, your strategy needs to shift. You can't just rely on "STARE" or "AUDIO" forever.
- Check the archive occasionally. If you’re torn between two guesses and one was the answer six months ago, pick the other one. The NYT almost never repeats an answer.
- Focus on consonants. Vowels are easy to find but hard to place. Consonants like Y, Z, and X are appearing more frequently as the "common" consonants are exhausted in simple combinations.
- Watch for double letters. We are seeing a statistically significant rise in words like "KAPPA" or "SASSY" because they are the "leftovers" in the word pool.
- Think like an editor. Does the word feel "New York Times-y"? They love words that are elegant. "GRACE," "PRIDE," "STYLE." They avoid words that are too "slangy" or "text-speak."
The game isn't just about knowing the dictionary anymore. It’s about knowing the history of the game itself. Every day that passes is one more word you can cross off your list of possibilities. It’s a game of elimination played over years.
Actionable Next Steps
To improve your daily performance and stop wasting turns on words that have already been used, follow these specific steps:
- Bookmark a Wordle Archive: Use a reliable fan-maintained database to quickly search if your "gut feeling" word has already been a solution. If it has, move to your second choice.
- Analyze Your Openers: If your favorite starting word (like "STARE") has already been a solution, consider switching to another high-entropy word that hasn't been used yet, such as "SLATE" or "TRACE," to maximize your chances of a "Hole-in-One."
- Study the "Unused" Clusters: Familiarize yourself with five-letter words containing "Q" without "U" or words with three vowels that haven't appeared. These are the "trap" words the editors use to spike the difficulty on Saturdays and Sundays.
- Follow the Wordle Bot's Logic: After your game, review the NYT Wordle Bot's analysis. It often explains why a word was chosen and subtly reveals which types of words remain in the "solution" pool versus the "allowed guess" pool.