Enter criteria and click Find Words
Thirty three words put B first and E third, and thirteen of them repeat a letter. That is an unusually high share and it shapes how the page plays.
R takes the second box in twelve words, L in eleven and E in eight. Together that is thirty one of the thirty three, leaving only two elsewhere.
So the second box is a three way choice. Work it out first, because the branches behave differently enough that the answer changes what you should guess next.
The BRE branch holds BREAD, BREAK, BREAM and BREED, all ordinary words with different fourth letters. The BLE branch holds BLEAK, BLEAT, BLEED and BLEND, which behave much the same way.
The BEE branch is different. BEECH, BEEFS, BEEPS, BEERS and BEETS all carry the doubled E automatically, so landing there tells you two letters and narrows the rest very little.
S closes eleven of the thirty three, thirty three percent, and D follows on five. A takes the fourth box in six words, more than any other letter.
BREAD tests all of that at once, covering the largest branch, the commonest fourth letter and a common ending. If it misses, BEEFS moves you into the doubled branch.
The BEE branch is responsible for most of it. Once a word starts BE and needs E in the third box, the doubled E follows automatically.
Not really. They share four letters and split only at the end, so as a pair they spend two turns learning one thing.
Yes, it means shelter and it is the one word here with I in the second box. That makes it easy to confirm or eliminate outright.