Word of the Day · Wednesday, August 20, 2025
/ˈɛˌseɪ/noun
(authorship) A written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject.
ESSAY is a 5-letter word with 2 vowels (E, A) and 3 consonants (S, S, Y). It repeats 1 letter, which is a classic trap — guessers who assume five distinct letters get stuck.
It leans on high-frequency letters (E, S, A), so a strong vowel-and-common-consonant opener tends to light up quickly. There are no rare letters here, so it is a fair, mid-difficulty answer for the daily Classic puzzle.
Across the 1,734 curated answers in the Wordocious bank, E appears in 50% of answers (the 1st most common letter), A appears in 40% of answers (the 2nd most common letter), S appears in 28% of answers (the 7th most common letter). No other answer in the bank opens with “ES-”, so locking those first two letters all but gives it away.
Difficulty: 2/5 — approachable, because the repeated letter hides one position.
Words like ESSAY are exactly what the daily puzzles throw at you. Warm up in Practice, race the clock in the Daily Challenge, or study the best starting words before your next run. New to the multi-board modes? The mode guides cover all nine.
Definitions adapted from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA). Letter statistics, difficulty ratings, and near-miss analysis are original Wordocious research computed from our curated answer list.