diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 7ee46dd..1e39de9 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -13,16 +13,21 @@ keywords = ["wordle", "benchmark"]
 default-run = "wordlec"
 
 [features]
-default = ["game", "bench", "tui", "solvers"]
-game = []
+default = ["game", "bench", "tui", "solvers", "builtin_wlist", "serde"]
+builtin_wlist = ["dep:serde_json", "serde"]
+game = ["builtin_wlist"]
 solvers = []
 tui = ["game"]
 bench = []
+serde = ["dep:serde"]
 
 [dependencies]
 anyhow = "1.0.81"
 clap = { version = "4.5.3", features = ["derive"] }
 libpt = "0.4.2"
+rand = "0.8.5"
+serde = { version = "1.0.197", optional = true, features = ["serde_derive"] }
+serde_json = {version = "1.0.114", optional = true}
 
 [[bin]]
 name = "wordlec"
diff --git a/src/bin/game/cli.rs b/src/bin/game/cli.rs
index 0d10e78..c5e3ec3 100644
--- a/src/bin/game/cli.rs
+++ b/src/bin/game/cli.rs
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 #![warn(missing_debug_implementations)]
 use clap::Parser;
 use libpt::log::*;
+use wordle_analyzer::game::Game;
+use wordle_analyzer::wlist::builtin::BuiltinWList;
 use wordle_analyzer::{self, game};
 
 #[derive(Parser, Clone, Debug)]
@@ -24,7 +26,7 @@ fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
     Logger::build_mini(Some(Level::TRACE))?;
     debug!("dumping CLI: {:#?}", cli);
 
-    let game = game::Game::builder()
+    let game: Game<BuiltinWList> = game::Game::builder()
         .length(cli.length)
         .precompute(cli.precompute)
         .build()?;
diff --git a/src/game/mod.rs b/src/game/mod.rs
index 76a63fb..c3090be 100644
--- a/src/game/mod.rs
+++ b/src/game/mod.rs
@@ -1,15 +1,21 @@
-#[derive(Debug, Clone, PartialEq, Eq, Hash)]
-pub struct Game {
+use crate::wlist::WordList;
+
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, PartialEq, Eq)]
+pub struct Game<WL>
+where
+    WL: WordList,
+{
     length: usize,
     precompute: bool,
     max_steps: usize,
     step: usize,
     solution: String,
+    wordlist: WL,
 }
 
-impl Game {
+impl<WL: WordList> Game<WL> {
     /// get a new [`GameBuilder`]
-    pub fn builder() -> GameBuilder {
+    pub fn builder() -> GameBuilder<WL> {
         GameBuilder::default()
     }
     /// Create a [Game] of wordle
@@ -24,22 +30,16 @@ impl Game {
     /// # Errors
     ///
     /// This function will return an error if .
-    pub(crate) fn build(length: usize, precompute: bool, max_steps: usize) -> anyhow::Result<Self> {
+    pub(crate) fn build(length: usize, precompute: bool, max_steps: usize, wlist: WL) -> anyhow::Result<Self> {
         let _game = Game {
             length,
             precompute,
             max_steps,
             step: 0,
             solution: String::default(), // we actually set this later
+            wordlist: wlist
         };
 
-        // TODO: load wordlist of possible answers
-        // TODO: select one as a solution at random
-        // NOTE: The possible answers should be determined with a wordlist that has the
-        // frequencies/probabilities of the words. We then use a sigmoid function to determine if a
-        // word can be a solution based on that value. Only words above some threshold of
-        // commonness will be available as solutions then. Next, we choose one of the allowed words
-        // randomly.
         todo!();
     }
 }
@@ -77,16 +77,17 @@ impl Game {
 /// ```
 ///
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, PartialEq, Eq, Hash)]
-pub struct GameBuilder {
+pub struct GameBuilder<WL: WordList> {
     length: usize,
     precompute: bool,
     max_steps: usize,
+    wordlist: WL
 }
 
-impl GameBuilder {
+impl<WL: WordList> GameBuilder<WL> {
     /// build a [`Game`] with the stored configuration
-    pub fn build(self) -> anyhow::Result<Game> {
-        let game: Game = Game::build(self.length, self.precompute, self.max_steps)?;
+    pub fn build(self) -> anyhow::Result<Game<WL>> {
+        let game: Game<WL> = Game::build(self.length, self.precompute, self.max_steps, WL::default())?;
         Ok(game)
     }
 
@@ -116,12 +117,13 @@ impl GameBuilder {
     }
 }
 
-impl Default for GameBuilder {
+impl<WL: WordList> Default for GameBuilder<WL> {
     fn default() -> Self {
         Self {
             length: super::DEFAULT_WORD_LENGTH,
             precompute: false,
             max_steps: super::DEFAULT_MAX_STEPS,
+            wordlist: WL::default()
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index 484c748..22c9942 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -13,3 +13,4 @@ pub mod bench;
 pub mod game;
 #[cfg(feature = "solvers")]
 pub mod solvers;
+pub mod wlist;
diff --git a/src/wlist/builtin.rs b/src/wlist/builtin.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..56d149d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/wlist/builtin.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+use serde_json;
+
+use super::Word;
+
+const RAW_WORDLIST_FILE: &str = include_str!("../../data/wordlists/en_US_3b1b_freq_map.json");
+
+#[derive(Clone, Debug)]
+pub struct BuiltinWList {
+    words: super::WordMap
+}
+
+impl super::WordList for BuiltinWList {
+    fn solutions(&self) -> Vec<&Word> {
+        // PERF: this can be made faster if we were to use parallel iterators or chunking
+        self.words.keys().collect()
+    }
+    fn length_range(&self) -> impl std::ops::RangeBounds<usize> {
+        5..5
+    }
+}
+
+impl Default for BuiltinWList {
+    fn default() -> Self {
+        let words: super::WordMap = serde_json::from_str(RAW_WORDLIST_FILE).unwrap();
+
+        Self {
+            words
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/wlist/mod.rs b/src/wlist/mod.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dab7484
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/wlist/mod.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+use rand::{prelude::*, seq::IteratorRandom};
+use std::collections::HashMap;
+use std::ops::RangeBounds;
+
+#[cfg(feature = "builtin_wlist")]
+pub mod builtin;
+pub mod word;
+use word::*;
+
+pub type AnyWordlist = Box<dyn WordList>;
+
+pub trait WordList: Clone + std::fmt::Debug + Default {
+    // NOTE: The possible answers should be determined with a wordlist that has the
+    // frequencies/probabilities of the words. We then use a sigmoid function to determine if a
+    // word can be a solution based on that value. Only words above some threshold of
+    // commonness will be available as solutions then. Next, we choose one of the allowed words
+    // randomly.
+    // NOTE: must never return nothing
+    fn solutions(&self) -> Vec<&Word>;
+    fn rand_solution(&self) -> &Word {
+        let mut rng = rand::thread_rng();
+        self.solutions().iter().choose(&mut rng).unwrap()
+    }
+    fn length_range(&self) -> impl RangeBounds<usize>;
+}
diff --git a/src/wlist/word.rs b/src/wlist/word.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f639dfc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/wlist/word.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+use std::collections::HashMap;
+
+#[cfg(feature = "serde")]
+use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
+
+// NOTE: We might need a different implementation for more precision
+#[derive(Clone, Debug, PartialEq, PartialOrd)]
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "serde", derive(Serialize, Deserialize))]
+pub struct Frequency {
+    inner: f64
+}
+// PERF: Hash for String is probably a bottleneck
+pub type Word = String;
+
+#[derive(Clone, Debug)]
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "serde", derive(Serialize, Deserialize))]
+pub struct WordMap {
+    inner: HashMap<Word,Frequency>
+}
+
+impl WordMap {
+    pub fn keys(&self) -> std::collections::hash_map::Keys<'_, String, Frequency> {
+        self.inner.keys()
+    }
+}