Passphrase Examples That Actually Hold Up
A good passphrase is a short list of words that no human would ever put together, produced by a random process. That last part decides everything. The examples below show what randomly generated passphrases look like, how strong each word count is, and the habits that quietly destroy the whole idea.
Standard warning: these examples are published, which means they are burned. Attackers harvest example passphrases into wordlists. Learn the shape here, then generate your own with the passphrase generator or five physical dice and a diceware list.
Entropy by word count
Diceware uses a list of 7,776 words (five dice throws pick one word: 6^5 = 7,776). Each random word contributes log2(7776), about 12.9 bits.
| Words | Approx. entropy | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | ~39 bits | Too weak for anything important |
| 4 | ~52 bits | Rate-limited online accounts |
| 5 | ~64 bits | Strong general-purpose default |
| 6 | ~77 bits | Master passwords, disk encryption |
| 7 | ~90 bits | High-value, long-lived secrets |
| 8 | ~103 bits | Beyond most realistic threats |
Examples that hold up
Every example below has the shape of true diceware output: unrelated words, no theme, no grammar.
Four words (~52 bits):
gravel-otter-pixel-flumemango-turbine-quilt-basaltsphinx-noodle-cairn-velcrotulip-gasket-mirth-condor
Five words (~64 bits):
plywood-comet-sari-glacier-hushedbanjo-tundra-osprey-lentil-cragmural-fizz-paddock-ember-sleetdingo-vellum-spork-arcade-thistlekarma-gully-pretzel-obelisk-wren
Six words (~77 bits):
fable-crocus-hangar-mimic-drizzle-yurtsaffron-boulder-kazoo-imprint-navy-tongwicker-plasma-gopher-eclair-summit-juteripple-fedora-magnet-cove-uncut-badger
Seven words (~90 bits):
onion-zephyr-caliper-mothball-rink-savory-dunehemlock-parka-nozzle-tribute-igloo-fern-waltzcobalt-mantis-eggnog-purse-tarmac-vivid-loom
Separators (hyphens, spaces, dots) add convenience, not meaningful entropy. Pick whichever the target system accepts and keep it consistent so you can remember it.
Why this works: the correct horse battery staple idea
The famous xkcd comic contrasted two approaches. A short word with forced mutations (like Tr0ub4dor&3) is hard for humans to remember and easy for machines to guess, because the mutations follow known rules. Four random common words (its example was “correct horse battery staple”) are easy for humans to remember and hard for machines to guess, because the machine must search the entire combination space of the wordlist: 7,776^4 is over 3.6 quadrillion possibilities for four words.
The insight is that memorability and strength are not enemies. Strength comes from the size of the random search space, not from how alien the password looks. Words are memorable units, and stacking a few random ones buys entropy fast.
One footnote: because the comic is famous, “correcthorsebatterystaple” itself is now one of the first things cracking tools try. The method survives; that instance does not.
Mistakes that ruin passphrases
Famous quotes. “tobeornottobe” and “maytheforcebewithyou” feel long, but attackers run phrase dictionaries built from books, films, and quote sites. A quote is one entry in a list, not a random combination.
Song lyrics. Same problem, larger source. Lyrics databases are scraped into cracking wordlists. If millions of people have heard it, it is not random.
Self-chosen words. When people pick their own words, they pick related ones: pets, foods, hobbies, a mini sentence. “coffeemugmondayoffice” has a theme, and themes compress the search space. The math above assumes uniform random selection; human selection is nowhere near uniform.
Personal facts. Names, birthdays, street names, teams. Anyone targeting you specifically feeds your public information into their wordlist first.
Too few words. Three words is about 39 bits. Offline cracking hardware chews through that. Do not go below four, and reserve four for accounts with login rate limiting.
Reusing one great passphrase everywhere. One breach exposes them all. Memorize one passphrase for your password manager, then let the manager generate unique random passwords for every site. Six words for the master is the sweet spot.
Clever mutations. Capitalizing each word or swapping letters for symbols adds a bit or two while making the phrase harder to type. If you need more strength, add a word. One extra word beats any decoration.
How to generate yours
Two honest options:
- Dice. Roll five dice per word against a published diceware list. Fully offline, nothing to trust.
- A generator. Use the passphrase generator, which selects words with a cryptographic random source in your browser.
Either way, accept the output. Rerolling until the words “feel nice” reintroduces human choice and trims the entropy you paid for. If the phrase is truly awkward, generate a fresh one; just do not hand-pick replacements word by word.
Pick your word count from the table, generate, and spend ten minutes typing it a few times. Random words stick faster than most people expect.
Still deciding whether a phrase is the right shape for a given account? Passphrase vs password compares the two on entropy, typing cost, and where each one belongs.
Frequently asked questions
- How many words should my passphrase have?
- Four random words is a floor for rate-limited accounts. Five is a solid default. Six or seven for anything facing offline attacks, like a password manager master password or full disk encryption.
- Can I just pick five words myself instead of rolling dice?
- No. Humans pick related, common, and themed words, which shrinks the search space drastically. The entropy math only holds when each word is selected at random from a large list by dice or a generator.
- Is correct horse battery staple still a safe passphrase?
- That exact phrase is not, because it is famous and sits in every attacker wordlist. The method it illustrates, several truly random common words, remains excellent. Generate your own words and it works.