diceware is a list of 7776 words.  You pick 6 words.  (That&#x27;s 7776^6).  If the attacker knows you&#x27;re using Diceware, knows what word list you&#x27;re using, and knows how many words you&#x27;re using (ie worst case) you get 12.9 bits of entropy per word.  If the attacker doesn&#x27;t know how many words you&#x27;re using, or they don&#x27;t don&#x27;t what wordlist you&#x27;re using you get more than 12.9 bits of entropy per word.<p>You&#x27;ve made a mistake here:<p>&gt; &#x27;correcthorsebatterystaple&#x27; can be broken into 25 characters &#x27;slots&#x27; or 4 word &#x27;slots&#x27;: [correct,horse,battery,staple]<p>&gt; what was 26^25, is now (possible words)^4<p>1) No-one suggests using 4 words. Randall uses 4 words because it fit in the cartoon.  Diceware suggests using 6 words for minimum.<p>2) No-one at all suggests using just the 1,000 &quot;most common words&quot;.  Diceware is a list of 7776 words. Except there&#x27;s more than one diceware list.