The most common letters in English
Research
In running English text the most common letter is E (11.94% of letters), then T and A; in the dictionary's word list it is E (10.47%). The most common first letter in text is T.
Letters in running text
Weighted by each word's written frequency (wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media)).
Letters in the dictionary
Each English word on PlainSpell counted once (Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract)).
The first letter of a word
| Letter | In running text | In the dictionary |
|---|---|---|
| T | 15.96% | 5.28% |
| A | 12.13% | 6.33% |
| I | 7.92% | 3.64% |
| O | 6.68% | 2.50% |
| S | 6.39% | 10.70% |
| W | 6.32% | 2.36% |
| B | 4.78% | 6.01% |
| C | 4.31% | 9.16% |
| H | 4.21% | 4.03% |
| F | 4.16% | 3.98% |
| M | 4.14% | 6.08% |
| P | 3.44% | 8.15% |
| D | 2.70% | 5.70% |
| L | 2.61% | 3.23% |
| N | 2.43% | 2.49% |
| R | 2.31% | 4.81% |
| G | 2.09% | 3.45% |
| E | 2.05% | 3.68% |
| Y | 2.02% | 0.44% |
| U | 1.22% | 2.98% |
| J | 0.75% | 0.96% |
| V | 0.61% | 1.54% |
| K | 0.55% | 1.49% |
| Q | 0.18% | 0.52% |
| Z | 0.03% | 0.38% |
| X | 0.03% | 0.11% |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract); wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How this was written
The text of this analysis was written with AI tools; its figures are queries on PlainSpell's database, and the text was checked against them. No figure is typed by hand. Editorial policy · Report an error.