5-letter words with O as the 3rd letter and W as the 4th letter

The fixed pattern is _ _ O W _, so the first two letters and final letter separate candidates. With O and W together, sort by opening or ending instead of treating them as separate clues. Familiar choices include known, brown, and crown; 21 entries rank among the top 25,000 English words by frequency.

The pattern at a glance

• There are 55 five-letter matches across the tournament dictionaries, with Collins accounting for all 55.
• ENABLE and NWL2023 each include 41 matches, so dictionary choice changes which answers you can play.
• Known, brown, shown, and crown are familiar examples among the 21 common entries.
• Sixteen words in the pattern also appear in the Wordle answer list and a tournament dictionary.

How many 5-letter words have O third and W fourth?

There are 55 matches, and S leads with 15 words, including shows, knows, snows, slows, and grows. C follows with seven, represented by crowd, crown, clown, and crows. Those examples make the first position a strong sorting clue once O and W are fixed.

The final letter narrows the choices even more: 25 matches end in S, while 12 end in N. That puts shows, knows, and grows in the largest ending group; known, brown, shown, and grown belong to the next. If your puzzle already rules out S, test an N ending before spending guesses on rarer endings.

Which matches score well, and what should you watch for?

Chowk is the top Scrabble scorer at 17 points, well ahead of showy and frowy at 14 each. That makes chowk a score-focused play, but it is far less familiar than known or brown.

Its high-value letters drive the total, so board placement still matters. A high tile score does not make an obscure word a safe guess.

The 5-letter words with O as the 3rd letter and W as the 4th letter are not interchangeable across dictionaries: Collins has 55 matches, while ENABLE and NWL2023 each have 41. Check your game's word list before relying on a less familiar entry. For a nearby pattern, compare the O-third, U-fourth group.