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

The fixed RO pair leaves three open slots, and it collects a friendlier crowd than most letter patterns: APRON, ARROW, BARON, CAROL, ERROR, JUROR and THROW all sit in the common-word group. Twelve of the 76 appear in the Wordle answer pool, close to one in six. Scores stay modest, though, because R and O sit near the bottom of the tile values.

What the R-O pattern looks like

• 76 five-letter words hold R in third place and O in fourth.
• Twelve belong to the Wordle answer pool, a high share for a letter pattern.
• Every one of the 24 words ending in S closes with -OS, as in EUROS and ZEROS.
• S opens 15 matches; T opens 11.
• XEROX is the only entry above 15 points, at 19.

How many Wordle answers does the RO pattern give?

Twelve, roughly one in six. The group includes APRON, ARROW, BARON, CAROL, ERROR, HERON, JUROR, TAROT, THROB and THROW, and most of them are everyday words. Sixty-one further matches are accepted guesses that can never be the solution.

That gap matters in play. A guess like JUROR or TAROT is worth trying because the repeated R and the open vowel give strong feedback, even when the word itself is not a candidate. Three matches sit outside the accepted guess pool altogether.

Which R-O words earn the most points?

XEROX is the outlier at 19 points, thanks to two X tiles worth 8 each. ZEROS and ARROZ follow at 14, and JUROR reaches 12. No other word in the pattern breaks 12, which is why the average score sits at 7.8.

Collins carries 71 of the 76, but 19 of those appear in neither ENABLE nor NWL2023. ENABLE holds 48 and NWL2023 holds 57. Words such as ARROZ and SHROW are the kind that trip players up, so check them against the list your game uses.

How to sort 5-letter words with R third and O fourth