Word Lists · H + W
5 Letter Words With H and W
Every five-letter word that contains both H and W, in any position — answer-eligible words flagged in green, tap any word to play.
How Many 5-Letter Words Have H and W?
Two yellow tiles reading H and W leave 138 candidates standing, of which 38 can be the solution. WHALE is the sharpest way to cut that down, eliminating roughly 94.2%.
If you take one thing from this page: H belongs in slot 2. That holds for 95 of the 138 words, 69% of everything here, SHAWL, SHOWN, SHOWY, SHREW included.
H and W sit side by side in 69 words here — WHACK, WHALE, WHARF, WHEAT among them. If one of your yellow tiles is already placed, testing the square right next to it covers a real slice of the list in one guess.
Just 28% hold two or more vowels; this is a consonant-heavy pocket of the dictionary, and a missing second vowel may simply not be there.
Green-dotted words are answer-eligible — the everyday vocabulary the daily puzzle actually draws from — while hollow-dotted words are valid guesses you can play but that will never be the solution. Flip on Answers only to focus on the 38 words that can truly win the board.
Best Wordle Words With H and W
When H and W are both in play, the strongest guess keeps them and rules out as many remaining answers as possible. These three score highest across all 2296 possible answers:
- 01 WHALE — eliminates about 94.2% of remaining answers on average.
- 02 WHOLE — eliminates about 93.4% of remaining answers on average.
- 03 WHILE — eliminates about 93.3% of remaining answers on average.
The Full List, Grouped by First Letter
The list is front-loaded: 90 of the 138 words start with W, 65% of everything here, spread over 12 opening letters in total. Tap the W chip and you have most of the page in one view.
H/W Words That Have Been Wordle Answers
H/W words are regulars in the daily answer. 33 have already been used — most recently PSHAW (#1852) on 2026-07-15, 67 days back — starting with WHELP in 2021. 6 answer words on this list have never come up.
| Puzzle | Date | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| #1852 | 2026-07-15 | PSHAW |
| #1816 | 2026-06-09 | WHARF |
| #1690 | 2026-02-03 | WEIGH |
| #1645 | 2025-12-20 | WHITE |
| #1566 | 2025-10-02 | WIDTH |
| #1499 | 2025-07-27 | WHOLE |
| #1413 | 2025-05-02 | WHOSE |
| #1390 | 2025-04-09 | WHEAT |
| #1329 | 2025-02-07 | SWATH |
| #1256 | 2024-11-26 | WITCH |
| #1133 | 2024-07-26 | AWASH |
| #1069 | 2024-05-23 | SWISH |
Never used as an answer
6 answer-eligible H/W words have never been the solution: SHREW, SWASH, WELCH, WIGHT, WINCH, WORTH . Wordle avoided repeats entirely for its first 1,688 puzzles and only began reusing old answers in February 2026 — 24 times so far. An unused word is still the likelier bet, just no longer a certainty; see how repeats work for the full picture.
The other 100 words on this list are valid guesses the game accepts but never chooses as a solution. They still make useful probes for placing H and W, but when you guess to win, a green-dotted answer word is the smarter pick.
Where H and W Land in 5-Letter Words
The whole puzzle now is placement, so here is exactly where each letter tends to sit across the 138 words. Try the busiest square first.
| Position | Words with H here | Words with W here |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 1 | 90 |
| 2nd | 95 | 7 |
| 3rd | 6 | 8 |
| 4th | 10 | 26 |
| 5th | 28 | 9 |
Play a candidate that seats each letter in its busiest square and one of two good things happens: a tile turns green and you have locked a position, or it turns yellow again and you have eliminated the single most likely slot in one move.
How to Use These Words to Win Wordle
- Lead with the busiest square. H in slot 2 covers 95 of these 138 words and W in slot 1 covers 90 — try that shape before rarer placements.
- Favor distinct letters early. 106 of the 138 words here use five different letters and 32 repeat one.
- Lean toward an unused word. Repeats stayed at zero until February 2026 and number just 24 in 1916 puzzles, so the 6 never-used H/W words above remain the stronger bet.
Full strategy lives in the how-to-play guide, and you can practice any time on the unlimited Wordle board.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many 5-letter words have H and W?
There are 138 valid five-letter words that contain both H and W in any position, and 38 of them can be a Wordle answer. Turn on "Answers only" above to narrow the list to answer-eligible words.
What is the best word to guess with H and W confirmed?
WHALE — it keeps both letters and still eliminates about 94.2% of the remaining answer pool. WHALE, WHOLE, WHILE are the top three by that measure. See more best Wordle starting words.
Where do H and W usually sit in these words?
H most often lands in the 2nd position (95 of 138 words) and W in the 1st (90). That is a strong enough lean to guess on directly.
Which H/W words have been Wordle answers?
33 of them, out of 1916 puzzles so far. The most recent was PSHAW (#1852) on 2026-07-15, and the first was WHELP on 2021-07-26. 6 answer-eligible words have never been used, including SHREW, SWASH, WELCH, WIGHT. Browse the full past Wordle answers archive.
Do these words work in hard mode?
Yes. Once H and W show as present you must reuse them, so this is exactly your hard-mode candidate set. 106 of the 138 words use five distinct letters and 32 repeat one, which matters because hard mode will not let you drop a confirmed letter to test elsewhere — see the how-to-play guide.
Are there 5-letter words with H and W next to each other?
69 of the 138 words place H and W in neighbouring squares: MAHWA, SCHWA, SHWAS, WHACK, WHALE, WHAMO, among others. The remaining 69 keep at least one square between them.
How many H/W words have no repeated letters?
106 of the 138. Those are the ones that reveal the most board per guess, so they are the better probes early on. The other 32 double up on some letter, and 28% of the full list carries two or more vowels. For a full clue-by-clue solve, send your board to the Wordle Solver.