5-letter words with S as the 1st letter and H as the 5th letter

That final H rarely stands alone; it teams up with a preceding consonant. Sixteen matches end in -SH and thirteen in -TH, so 29 of the 47 land on those two digraphs. Fourteen sit in the Wordle answer pool, and SIXTH leads the score table at 15 with an X doing the heavy lifting.

Why does H always arrive with a partner?

A lone H after four other letters is almost impossible in English, so this pattern leans on digraphs. -SH closes 16 words and -TH another 13, covering 29 of the 47 matches between them. The seven -AH endings come from borrowed words such as SELAH, SURAH and SYRAH.

Only four words close in -CH and three each in -PH and -GH. Those tails carry the pattern's best tiles: SYNCH and SYLPH reach 13, and STAPH puts the P to work. If you chase points, aim at the digraph rather than the opening letter.

Numbers behind the S-to-H pattern

• 47 five-letter words begin with S and close with H.
• Fourteen are Wordle answers; 46 are accepted guesses.
• SIXTH scores 15, the highest in the group.
• Sixteen matches end in -SH and 13 in -TH.
• Eight rank as common English words, and 34 have a definition.

Which S-to-H words work as Wordle answers?

Fourteen, and they are the friendliest names in the list: SLASH, SLOSH, SLOTH, SLUSH, SMASH, SMITH, SOUTH, STASH, SWISH and SWATH among them. Forty-six of the 47 are accepted guesses, so the answer pool is roughly a third of everything playable.

The -TH tail supplies the top scorer and several answers in a row: SIXTH, SLOTH, SMITH, SOUTH and SWATH. That shows how little the closing digraph narrows things, so pin S and H first and spend the next guesses on the middle vowel.

5-letter words with S first and H fifth in short