5-letter words with P as the 1st letter and A as the 5th letter

A final A closes all 53 matches, which leaves the middle three letters to guess. Eleven words double a consonant, so pizza, poppa, pukka and pinna sit beside simple forms such as panda and pasta. Only eight entries rank as common words, and the set is small next to the 256 words that start with P and end in S.

The P-A pattern at a glance

• All 53 matches start with P and end in A.
• Eleven matches double a letter, from pizza and poppa to pukka and pinna.
• Five are Wordle answers: parka, pasta, pizza, plaza and polka.
• Pizza scores 25 and plaza 16, the only matches above 15.
• T fills the fourth slot 13 times, ahead of K with 10.

Why so many P-A words double a letter

Eleven of the 53 matches repeat a letter, which is an unusually high share for any five-letter pattern. Pizza, poppa, pukka, pinna, penna, pitta and parra all echo a consonant, so a doubled tile on the rack is a genuine clue for this shape.

The fourth slot narrows things further: T appears 13 times, K ten times and M nine. Those three letters cover 32 of the 53 matches, so when your grid already fixes a middle tile, check the endings before you reach for fresh words.

Wordle answers are rarer than the list suggests. Only five of the 53 fit, and they are parka, pasta, pizza, plaza and polka, each one a guess a player recognises at once. The K ending, as in parka and polka, is the second busiest route through the set.

Playing the 25-point leader