The countermeasure to the wordlist is entropy—true randomness. The concept of the "Diceware" or passphrases consisting of random common words (e.g., correct horse battery staple ) attempts to outpace the wordlist's capabilities.

Security experts often speak of "Password Logic," which dictates that to make a password secure, a user will often capitalize the first letter and append a number or a symbol. Consequently, wordlists employ rule engines that programmatically apply these predictable behaviors to base words.