This list holds 28,394 words, 16.4% of the 172,634 words this site keeps from the ENABLE word list. Every word here has 8 letters, and they average 8 letters by construction — so the interesting differences are in which letters they use. Of the 14 lists in this group it is the biggest; the next is “9 letter words” with 24,863, and the smallest is “2 letter words” with 96. 26 words that would also fit were left out by this site's blocklist of slurs and explicit words.

Points and vowels

Using this site's letter values, the average word here scores 14 points (median 14); words of the same lengths across the whole list average 14, so this list scores the same as the dictionary. The top scorers are ZYZZYVAS (39), JAZZLIKE (36), QUIZZING (34), BEZAZZES (32). Point for point, ZYZZYVAS earns the most per letter: 39 points over 8 letters, 4.9 each.

Vowels (A, E, I, O, U) make up 37.4% of the letters, against 38% across the whole list. 303 words are more than half vowels. Compared with the whole dictionary, the letter most over-represented here is K: 1.2% of the letters, against 0.8% overall.

How the words are built

Position by position, the most likely letters are S in slot 1 (12.2%), E in slot 2 (14.8%), R in slot 3 (9.4%), E in slot 4 (9.6%), I in slot 5 (10.7%), I in slot 6 (21.7%), E in slot 7 (26.4%), S in slot 8 (34.1%). 5,838 words use 8 different letters with none repeated (20.6%); the rest repeat at least one, and the most common double is LL (1,185 words). The most common three-letter openings are OUT- (296, as in OUTACTED), OVE- (222, as in OVENBIRD), MIS- (212, as in MISACTED). The most common endings are -ING (2,011, as in ABASHING), -ERS (1,248, as in ABETTERS), -EST (647, as in ACERBEST). 32.1% end in a single S — mostly plurals and verb forms of shorter words.

Word play in this list

The biggest anagram family here is ANGRIEST, ASTRINGE, GANISTER, GANTRIES, GRANITES, INGRATES and RANGIEST — 7 words from the same 8 letters. Altogether 2,405 sets of anagrams sit inside this list, covering 5,388 words. 4 words turn into another real word when spelled backwards — DESSERTS becomes STRESSED, REDRAWER becomes REWARDER, REWARDER becomes REDRAWER, STRESSED becomes DESSERTS. AARDVARK is the longest word here that uses only one kind of vowel, ahead of ABFARADS.

29.5% of these words take an S on the end and stay a word (AARDVARK, AASVOGEL and ABAMPERE among them); after S, the most useful end letter is D, which extends 835 words. At the front, S turns 157 words into new ones (ALLOWING → SALLOWING); P turns 145 words into new ones (ALTERERS → PALTERERS); A turns 67 words into new ones (BASEMENT → ABASEMENT).

Using this list

To narrow it further, open it in the pattern finder: the rule “has 8 letters” is already filled in, and you can add a length, a fixed letter position or letters to leave out.

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About these lists. Words come from ENABLE, a public-domain word list; a few slurs and explicit words are left out. Letter values are this site's own rule, based on how rare each letter is. Scrabble, Words With Friends and Wordle are trademarks of their owners (Hasbro and Mattel, Zynga, The New York Times); this site is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them. Sources and limits.