Enter criteria and click Find Words
Thirty one words put A first and T third, and the second box does most of the sorting. One letter there is worth more than all the others.
N takes the second box in ten words, thirty two percent of the pattern. C, L and R follow on four each, and past that group the counts fall away into ones and twos.
So the sensible order is N first, then the C, L and R group as a block. Testing anything below that costs a turn for very little.
ALTER and ALTAR differ in one box and both are common. ANTES and ANTED do the same thing, as do ARTAL and ARTEL. Landing inside one of those pairs narrows far less than it feels like it should, so pick guesses that split them rather than confirm them.
AFTER is the most used word here by a wide margin. ACTOR, ASTER and ATTIC cover three different second letters, and APTLY is the one that ends in Y rather than the R or S that most of these take.
R finishes nine of these and S another five, so between them they take fourteen of the thirty one. If your puzzle has ruled out both, what is left is small enough to read through.
Nearly. Only two words in the group repeat a letter, and ATTIC and ATTAR are the pair.
Almost all. AUTOS and AITCH are the exceptions, putting a vowel in the second box, and both are worth remembering for that reason.
E is the single most likely at eight words, but I and A take twelve between them. The fourth box is genuinely open here.