It’s difficult to give an exact number for the total number of 5 letter words in the English language, as new words are constantly being added and some words may be considered slang or informal.
However, we can make an estimate based on the number of words in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which is one of the most comprehensive dictionaries of the English language.
According to the OED, there are over 170,000 words in current use in the English language, including both common and obscure words.
Assuming that approximately 25% of these words are 5 letters long, we can estimate that there are around 42,500 5-letter words in the English language.
However, it’s important to note that this is only an estimate and the actual number could be higher or lower depending on how you define and classify words.
How to Estimate 5 Letter Words?
Here are a few more ways to estimate the number of 5-letter words in the English language:
Based on Letter Combinations
One way to estimate the number of 5-letter words is to calculate the total number of possible combinations of five letters from the English alphabet (a-z), and then subtract any combinations that do not form valid words.
There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, so the total number of possible 5-letter combinations is 26^5, or 11,881,376. However, not all of these combinations form valid English words, so the actual number of 5-letter words is much lower.
According to some estimates, around 10-15% of 5-letter combinations form valid English words, which would give an estimate of around 118,000 to 177,000 5-letter words.
Based on Word Frequency
Another way to estimate the number of 5-letter words is to look at the frequency of words of different lengths in a large corpus of English text, and then extrapolate the frequency of 5-letter words based on this data.
According to some studies, around 20% of words in English text are 5 letters long, which would give an estimate of around 34,000 5-letter words. However, this method is subject to some uncertainty, as word frequency can vary depending on the specific corpus of text that is used.
Based on Word Lists
A third way to estimate the number of 5-letter words is to use a word list or dictionary of the English language and count the number of words that are exactly 5 letters long.
This method will give a more accurate count of the number of valid English words, but it may miss some words that are considered slang or informal and are not included in the dictionary.
According to some estimates, there are around 25,000 to 35,000 5-letter words in standard English dictionaries