Where our words come from
Three game dictionaries, one frequency list and Wiktionary. Every number on the site is computed from them.
Word lists
A word appears on Word Puzzle Answers only if at least one of the three game dictionaries lists it. Every word page shows which ones do.
| Dictionary | Words | Used by |
|---|---|---|
| NWL (NWL2023 (NASPA Word List 2023)) | 196,601 | North American clubs and tournaments |
| Collins Scrabble Words | 267,752 | Tournaments in most other countries |
| ENABLE | 168,551 | Many word apps; public domain |
Together they hold 277,480 different words of 2 to 15 letters.
How common a word is
Lists are sorted by how often each word appears in real English, using wordfreq by Robyn Speer, a blend of books, Wikipedia, film subtitles, news and web text (data licensed CC BY-SA 4.0). Words wordfreq does not list fall back to the hermitdave FrequencyWords subtitle counts. We call a word common when it is among the 25,000 most frequent English words; 20,967 of our words are.
Definitions
223,806 words carry modern definitions from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA), via the Kaikki/Wiktextract extract, with pronunciations and origins on word pages. Public-domain Webster's 1913 fills some gaps. Senses Wiktionary marks obsolete, archaic or offensive are left out, and a definition we cannot stand behind is not published.
Wordle
Wordle facts use the original answer list of 2,315 words and the list of accepted guesses.
Scores
Scrabble scores use the standard English tile values. Words With Friends scores use that game's tile values. Both are before premium squares.
A word's status can differ from the official dictionary of the game you play. Check that list before a challenge that matters.