5-letter words ending in W

W is worth 4 points, so every word here starts with a bonus. The group is small enough to learn by its three vowel endings: 28 words end in -OW, 21 in -EW and 14 in -AW. Those three cover all but one of the 64, so a vowel guess does a lot of the work.

Ending in W, at a glance

• Counts by list: 62 in Collins, 41 in NWL2023, 40 in ENABLE.
• 17 have turned up as answers; none is barred as a guess.
• 10 sit among everyday English words.
• OXBOW tops the scores at 17, and the average is 10.6.
• S opens 13 words, then E with 8 and A with 6.

Which vowel comes before the W?

-OW leads with 28 words, then -EW with 21 and -AW with 14. One further word ends in -UW. The leading O group includes BELOW, ALLOW, THROW, ARROW, WIDOW and ELBOW.

The -EW group holds THREW, SCREW, RENEW, SHREW and STREW, and -AW holds STRAW, BYLAW and MACAW.

Which Wordle answers end in W?

Seventeen have been answers. BELOW, ALLOW, THROW, THREW, SCREW, ARROW, WIDOW, STRAW and ELBOW lead on frequency, followed by RENEW, SHREW, ASKEW, BYLAW, ENDOW, MACAW, SINEW and AGLOW.

Because all 64 are accepted as guesses, you can test the W ending freely. If your early guesses show a T and an H, the O versus E choice decides the whole game.

Why do THROW and THREW both end in W?

Many of these words are verbs or their past forms. THROW and THREW are the present and past of one verb, while STRAW and STREW are separate spellings with a different vowel. ALLOW, ENDOW and RENEW are plain verbs that take an ending in W.

Ten of the 64 are common, and they are the ones you can rely on: ALLOW, ARROW, BELOW, ELBOW, RENEW, SCREW, STRAW, THREW, THROW and WIDOW. The rest are rarer, such as AGLOW, MIAOW and PAPAW.

Which W words score the most?

OXBOW scores 17, built on an 8-point X, with KAPOW at 14 and BYLAW at 13. WIDOW scores 12, and the 4-point W gives every entry a head start. A plain word such as BELOW lands at 10, close to the group average of 10.6.

Collins lists 62 words, against 41 in NWL2023 and 40 in ENABLE, so rare forms such as EWHOW or PAWAW can fail. Check your game's word list before using them. The plain verbs ALLOW and RENEW never will.