1. Unique Letters:
* First, identify the unique letters in "hippopotamus": h, i, p, o, t, m, a, s
2. Count the Possibilities:
* For the first letter: You have 8 choices.
* For the second letter: You have 7 choices left.
* For the third letter: You have 6 choices left.
* For the fourth letter: You have 5 choices left.
* For the fifth letter: You have 4 choices left.
3. Calculate the Total:
* To get the total number of possible five-letter words, multiply the number of choices for each letter: 8 * 7 * 6 * 5 * 4 = 6,720
Important Note: This calculation includes all possible combinations of letters, even those that don't form real words. To find the number of actual English words, you'd need to check a dictionary.