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1813 five letter words begin with S, which makes it the largest starting letter group in the language by a wide margin.
T and A tie at about twelve percent each, H takes ten, and P, E and O sit at eight apiece. No single branch dominates.
What matters more is that S combines with more consonants than any other opening letter. ST, SH, SP, SC, SL, SM, SN and SW are all productive, which is why the count runs so high.
STATE, STORE, SOUTH, SINCE and SMALL are the most common entries, and between them they cover four different second letters.
With 1813 candidates, knowing the first letter barely narrows anything. The second letter is where the real cut happens, so spend your next guess there rather than on the ending.
STORE and SHALL between them test T, H, O and A, which covers the four busiest branches in one pair of guesses.
The consonant blends are what make S different from every other opening. Most letters want a vowel straight after, and S frequently does not.
It forms a working blend with eight different consonants, and it also serves as the plural ending that turns four letter words into five letter ones.
Both test the same ST branch. STARE brings an A and an R, which are commoner than the O and R in STORE, so it edges it slightly.
They are in the list as their own words, so SALES and SITES sit alongside everything else. That is part of why the S count runs so far ahead.