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222 five letter words start with RE, and the third letter is spread thinner here than on any other two letter opening.
A leads at only about nine percent, then B, D and S at eight each and N at seven. Nothing reaches double figures.
RE is a prefix rather than a spelling pattern, so it attaches to a wide range of roots and the third letter follows the root rather than the prefix.
REPLY, READY, REACH, REFER and READS are the most common entries, and no two of them share a third letter.
Two fixed letters usually cut a group hard, but here they only tell you the word carries a prefix. The three boxes after it stay wide open.
So the useful move is a guess that tests several third letters at once rather than committing to the leading one.
That is the opposite of how most two letter openings behave, which is what makes this page harder than its size suggests.
REACH or READS. Both cover the A branch while testing C, H, D and S, which reach into several other branches at the same time.
Whichever one misses, the letters it clears are common enough that the second guess starts from a much smaller field.
Because the prefix carries no information about the root it attaches to. Any letter that can start a root can follow RE.
They share four letters and split at the end, so landing either one narrows the other to a single question.
It is the most common entry, but its P, L and Y are all weak tests. READY rules out considerably more when it misses.