5 letter words with second letter Y

Every five-letter word in the list whose second letter is Y — 164 of them, printed in full below. The pattern _Y___ is already set; add the letters you have confirmed or ruled out to cut it down.

Five-letter words with Y in second place, by the numbers

There are 164 of them here, which makes Y the eleventh busiest second letter at this length. The full list is on this page rather than behind a click, in alphabetical order, with the highest-scoring words called out separately below.

The letter that most often sits in front of it is L, which opens 17 of them. Once Y is locked, the third square is most often R (25 of them). 64 of them end in S.

On standard Scrabble tiles the most expensive are KYLIX (19), ZYMES (19), HYRAX (18). Tile values are a fact about the game rather than about English: a word scores well because its letters are rare, which is exactly why the top of that list is nobody's idea of a good opening guess.

What Y does in the second slot

Y second is AY-, EY-, OY- and the rare consonant-plus-Y. Y is doing vowel work here, which is why the page is short and the words look like they end in a vowel even when they do not.

116 of them use five different letters (AYINS, BYLAW, BYRES and BYTES). Ten of them contain a doubled letter (BYSSI, FYTTE, LYCEE and LYSSA). The no-repeat words are the ones worth guessing early, because each one tests five letters instead of four.

One of them carries three or more vowels (EYRIE). Those are the ones to reach for when the letters you have left are mostly vowels. 22 of them manage without A, E, I, O or U (BYRLS, CYSTS, GYPSY and HYMNS).

Using a second-letter Y list in a puzzle

A green tile in the second square is a different clue from a green tile in the first. These 164 candidates already have Y locked; put the other confirmed letters into the remaining underscores and put everything you have ruled out into the excluded box.

The first letter usually cuts this list harder than another middle letter, because second-letter Y is shared by many opening consonants. If you have a choice about which square to test next, test the opener.

Alphabetically the list here runs from AYAHS to ZYMES. Every word on it comes from the same public-domain list the search box queries. The opening-Y list is a different page: those words start with Y, and only 94 of them do.

Highest scoring five-letter words with Y second

Standard Scrabble tile values for this slot, not for words that open with Y. Rare letters still dominate the top of the table.

What comes before second-letter Y

The opening letter, counted across all 164 of them. This is usually the square that cuts the list fastest once Y is locked.

How words with Y second end

The last letter on this list, not on the opening-Y list. S is still common; the rarer endings are the ones that finish a guess.

Common questions

Every word, grouped by how long it is

The complete list at each length. Three letters is a page you memorise; nine is a page you search.

• 3 969
• 4 3,888
• 5 8,621
• 6 5,776
• 7 6,729
• 8 6,714
• 9 5,919

Five-letter words by opening letter

The complete list for each letter, with how many there are. S is a page you scroll; X is a page you read.

• A 497
• B 589
• C 662
• D 455
• E 192
• F 429
• G 414
• H 334
• I 118
• J 133
• K 205
• L 401
• M 443
• N 200
• O 181
• P 565
• Q 53
• R 419
• S 1,053
• T 547
• U 117
• V 161
• W 295
• X 13
• Y 94
• Z 51

Five-letter words by second letter

The same length, a different known square. A is the large page; J is the short one.

• A 1,478
• B 53
• C 122
• D 58
• E 1,063
• F 14
• G 49
• H 377
• I 963
• J 7
• K 55
• L 508
• M 116
• N 239
• O 1,333
• P 150
• Q 12
• R 645
• S 65
• T 166
• U 789
• V 39
• W 97
• X 44
• Y 164
• Z 15

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