The dictionary by the numbers
Lexo Duels checks every swipe against a list of 260,345 words. This page counts what is in it. The numbers explain a lot about which habits pay off.
Where the list comes from
The word list is built from ENABLE (the Enhanced North American Benchmark Lexicon) merged with YAWL (Yet Another Word List), two long-standing public-domain lists made for word games. Entries are single words only: no hyphens, no apostrophes, no spaces. Definitions shown in the game's Wordbook come from Princeton WordNet, hosted on our own server.
The list holds only words of 3 to 16 letters. Nothing shorter counts, and nothing longer fits on the 16 tiles of the board, so every one of the 260,345 words can be played.
Words by length
| Length | Words | Share | Points each |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 letters | 1,255 | 0.5% | 100 |
| 4 letters | 5,249 | 2.0% | 400 |
| 5 letters | 12,036 | 4.6% | 800 |
| 6 letters | 21,434 | 8.2% | 1,400 |
| 7 letters | 32,054 | 12.3% | 1,800 |
| 8 letters | 39,288 | 15.1% | 2,200 |
| 9 letters | 38,319 | 14.7% | 2,600 |
| 10 letters | 33,691 | 12.9% | 3,000 |
| 11 letters | 26,659 | 10.2% | 3,400 |
| 12 letters | 19,518 | 7.5% | 3,800 |
| 13 letters | 13,381 | 5.1% | 4,200 |
| 14 letters | 8,768 | 3.4% | 4,600 |
| 15 letters | 5,443 | 2.1% | 5,000 |
| 16 letters | 3,250 | 1.2% | 5,400 |
The average playable word is 9.2 letters long, but that is not what a round looks like. Words of three to eight letters make up 43% of the list and nearly everything anyone finds in 80 seconds. There are only 1,255 three-letter words against 12,036 five-letter words: the short words are the ones you can realistically know completely.
How often each letter appears
Counted across every letter of every playable word:
| Letter | Share of all letters | Letter | Share of all letters |
|---|---|---|---|
| E | 11.3% | M | 2.9% |
| S | 9.6% | G | 2.8% |
| I | 9.1% | H | 2.5% |
| A | 7.7% | B | 1.8% |
| R | 7.0% | Y | 1.6% |
| N | 6.8% | F | 1.2% |
| O | 6.6% | V | 0.9% |
| T | 6.6% | K | 0.9% |
| L | 5.2% | W | 0.7% |
| C | 4.0% | Z | 0.5% |
| D | 3.3% | X | 0.3% |
| U | 3.3% | Q | 0.2% |
| P | 3.0% | J | 0.2% |
The top five letters, E, S, I, A, R, account for 45% of everything. When several of them sit together on a board, that is where the long words are.
What words start with
| First letter | Words | First letter | Words |
|---|---|---|---|
| S | 29,726 | U | 9,131 |
| C | 23,380 | G | 8,558 |
| P | 22,867 | O | 8,405 |
| D | 15,608 | L | 7,321 |
| A | 15,279 | N | 6,276 |
| M | 14,418 | W | 5,461 |
| R | 14,147 | V | 4,313 |
| T | 13,657 | K | 2,823 |
| B | 13,579 | J | 2,090 |
| E | 10,698 | Q | 1,321 |
| F | 9,805 | Z | 1,110 |
| H | 9,721 | Y | 933 |
| I | 9,419 | X | 299 |
More words start with S than with any other letter, and C and P follow. A useful habit: when you are stuck, start a swipe from each S, C and P on the board and see what follows.
Related lists
Last updated October 4, 2026. Every number and word on this page is generated from the same rules and the same 260,345-word dictionary the game server uses.