# Group of four letters with the most words that can be made
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/group-of-four-letters-with-the-most-words-that-can-be-made/755231
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 20, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/group-of-four-letters-with-the-most-words-that-can-be-made/755231 "2016-05-20T16:05:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@pianodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pianodave)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/group-of-four-letters-with-the-most-words-that-can-be-made/755231/1 "2016-05-20T16:05:21Z")
Hi SD,
The other day, while waiting for the bus, I passed the time away by looking at the stop sign across the street. I wanted to see how many words (1, 2, 3, or 4 letters) I could make out of the letters S,T,O, and P.
I found: STOP, SOP, SPOT, OPT, OPTS, TOP, TOPS, POST, POT, POTS, TO, SO, SOT, and O.
That’s 14 words.
My question is, is there any group of four letters that have MORE legitimate words that can be made out of them, never using a letter more than once in the creation of a word? Could you use an anagram program to find out?
Dave
---
### Author:  [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/group-of-four-letters-with-the-most-words-that-can-be-made/755231/2 "2016-05-20T16:30:59Z")
On the top of my head, I can make more words out of the four most common letters A,E N,T:
A
An
At
Et
Ane (Yes, Scottish!)
Ant
Ate
Eat
Ent (Old English/Middle Earth; I know!)
Nae
Net
Tan
Ten
Ante
Neat
That’s 15, and I’m sure I have missed some!
---
### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2016, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/group-of-four-letters-with-the-most-words-that-can-be-made/755231/3 "2016-05-20T16:41:37Z")
^ Etna (, Mt.)
---
### Author:  [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2016, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/group-of-four-letters-with-the-most-words-that-can-be-made/755231/4 "2016-05-20T16:41:46Z")
> [@Ignotus](#):
>
> On the top of my head, I can make more words out of the four most common letters A,E N,T:
>
> A
> An
> At
> Et
> Ane (Yes, Scottish!)
> Ant
> Ate
> Eat
> Ent (Old English/Middle Earth; I know!)
> Nae
> Net
> Tan
> Ten
> Ante
> Neat
>
> That’s 15, and I’m sure I have missed some!
Plus En - as in the letter or a type of dash.
---
### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2016, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/group-of-four-letters-with-the-most-words-that-can-be-made/755231/5 "2016-05-20T16:48:14Z")
> [@Ignotus](#):
>
> Four most common letters A,E N,T:
> That’s 15, and I’m sure I have missed some!
Actually, there are [22 words](http://www.wordfind.com/solver/#results) you could have made.
I consider it cheating, but some Scrabble ™ players use sites such as:
> **[Scrabble Word Finder: The #1 Online Scrabble Cheat | Wordfind](https://wordfind.com/)**
>
> Scrabble Word Finder is a Scrabble Cheat that helps you find all the words available for the tiles you have. Find words for Scrabble, Words with Friends Cheat, Jumble solver,
---
### Author:  [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/group-of-four-letters-with-the-most-words-that-can-be-made/755231/6 "2016-05-20T16:55:37Z")
From a strictly combinatorial standpoint, one can assemble 64 groups of all possible sizes from a group of four letters: 4 one-letter groups, 4_3 = 12 two-letter groups, 4_3_2 = 24 three-letter groups, and 4_3_2_1 = 24 four-letter groups. But, of course, relatively few of these groups are likely to be valid dictionary words.
This also assumes that no letters in the group are the same; if so, the number of distinct possible groups goes down.
---
### Author:  [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2016, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/group-of-four-letters-with-the-most-words-that-can-be-made/755231/7 "2016-05-20T17:15:22Z")
> [@chappachula](#):
>
> Actually, there are [22 words](http://www.wordfind.com/solver/#results) you could have made.
>
> I consider it cheating, but some Scrabble ™ players use sites such as:
> [http://www.wordfind.com/](http://www.wordfind.com/)
Without cheating, I can clearly see that I missed the obvious “Tea” and (again, Scottish – I’m a big Robert Burns fan!) “Tae”.
---
### Author:  [@Rhodes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhodes)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2016, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/group-of-four-letters-with-the-most-words-that-can-be-made/755231/8 "2016-05-20T17:28:26Z")
I got these 17 from SEAT:
seat
teas
eats
sate
east
etas
sea
eat
ate
tea
sat
set
eta
as
et
at
a
And then [wordfind.com](http://wordfind.com) adds a few for 25 total:
ates
seta
tas
sae
tae
ae
es
ta
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2016, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/group-of-four-letters-with-the-most-words-that-can-be-made/755231/9 "2016-05-20T17:55:45Z")
n/m. I see “ae” was already mentioned.
---
### Author:  [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/group-of-four-letters-with-the-most-words-that-can-be-made/755231/10 "2016-05-20T18:04:27Z")
This is fun, but maybe we should move to the Game Room?
---
### Author:  [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/group-of-four-letters-with-the-most-words-that-can-be-made/755231/11 "2016-05-21T20:45:16Z")
Using a 172k-entry word list, I get the following.
All unique letter sets that make more than 20 words:
```auto
(25) A, AE, AS, AT, ATE, ATES, EAST, EAT, EATS, ES, ET, ETA, ETAS, SAE, SAT, SATE, SEA, SEAT, SET, SETA, TA, TAE, TAS, TEA, TEAS
(24) A, AE, AL, ALE, ALT, AT, ATE, EAT, EL, ET, ETA, LA, LAT, LATE, LEA, LET, TA, TAE, TAEL, TALE, TEA, TEAL, TEL, TELA
(24) A, AE, AH, AT, ATE, EAT, EATH, EH, ET, ETA, ETH, HA, HAE, HAET, HAT, HATE, HE, HEAT, HET, TA, TAE, TEA, THAE, THE
(24) A, AE, AR, ARE, ARES, ARS, ARSE, AS, EAR, EARS, ER, ERA, ERAS, ERS, ES, RAS, RASE, RE, RES, SAE, SEA, SEAR, SER, SERA
(25) A, AE, AS, AT, ATE, ATES, EAST, EAT, EATS, ES, ET, ETA, ETAS, SAE, SAT, SATE, SEA, SEAT, SET, SETA, TA, TAE, TAS, TEA, TEAS
(24) A, AE, AL, ALE, ALT, AT, ATE, EAT, EL, ET, ETA, LA, LAT, LATE, LEA, LET, TA, TAE, TAEL, TALE, TEA, TEAL, TEL, TELA
(24) A, AE, AH, AT, ATE, EAT, EATH, EH, ET, ETA, ETH, HA, HAE, HAET, HAT, HATE, HE, HEAT, HET, TA, TAE, TEA, THAE, THE
(24) A, AE, AR, ARE, ARES, ARS, ARSE, AS, EAR, EARS, ER, ERA, ERAS, ERS, ES, RAS, RASE, RE, RES, SAE, SEA, SEAR, SER, SERA
(23) A, AE, AR, ARE, ART, AT, ATE, EAR, EAT, ER, ERA, ET, ETA, RAT, RATE, RE, RET, TA, TAE, TAR, TARE, TEA, TEAR
(23) A, AE, AN, ANE, ANT, ANTE, AT, ATE, EAT, EN, ET, ETA, ETNA, NA, NAE, NE, NEAT, NET, TA, TAE, TAN, TEA, TEN
(23) A, AE, AM, AT, ATE, EAT, EM, ET, ETA, MA, MAE, MAT, MATE, ME, MEAT, MET, META, TA, TAE, TAM, TAME, TEA, TEAM
(23) EN, ENS, EON, EONS, ES, NE, NO, NOES, NOS, NOSE, O, OE, OES, ON, ONE, ONES, ONS, OS, OSE, SEN, SO, SON, SONE
(22) A, AE, APE, APT, AT, ATE, EAT, ET, ETA, PA, PAT, PATE, PE, PEA, PEAT, PET, TA, TAE, TAP, TAPE, TEA, TEPA
(21) A, AR, ART, AT, O, OAR, OAT, OR, ORA, ORT, RAT, RATO, ROT, ROTA, TA, TAO, TAR, TARO, TO, TOR, TORA
(21) ER, EROS, ERS, ES, O, OE, OES, OR, ORE, ORES, ORS, OS, OSE, RE, RES, ROE, ROES, ROSE, SER, SO, SORE
(21) A, AE, AL, ALE, ALES, ALS, AS, EL, ELS, ES, LA, LAS, LASE, LEA, LEAS, SAE, SAL, SALE, SEA, SEAL, SEL
(21) A, AE, AERY, AR, ARE, AY, AYE, EAR, ER, ERA, EYRA, RAY, RE, RYA, RYE, YA, YAR, YARE, YE, YEA, YEAR
(21) A, AE, APE, APER, AR, ARE, EAR, ER, ERA, PA, PAR, PARE, PE, PEA, PEAR, PER, RAP, RAPE, RE, REAP, REP
(21) A, AE, AM, AMEN, AN, ANE, EM, EN, MA, MAE, MAN, MANE, ME, MEAN, MEN, NA, NAE, NAM, NAME, NE, NEMA
```
Of the 14,950 4-letter sets possible, 5239 make no words, 1271 make only a single word, 974 make two words, …, and 1 set makes 25 words. The full table of making is here:
```auto
1 25
3 24
4 23
1 22
6 21
7 20
19 19
27 18
40 17
68 16
89 15
131 14
174 13
240 12
328 11
370 10
524 9
689 8
792 7
920 6
1020 5
1071 4
942 3
974 2
1271 1
5239 0
```