5-letter words with D as the 3rd letter and L as the 4th letter

The fixed pattern is _ _ D L _, so the third and fourth tiles are settled while the first two and final letter remain open. That leaves a compact group: five words rank among common English vocabulary, and six are Wordle answers. Most finish in E or Y, making the last tile a useful clue when you’re narrowing a guess.

The pattern at a glance

• 14 tournament-dictionary words match _ _ D L _; five are common English words.
• BADLY and MADLY top the Scrabble scores at 11 points each.
• Seven words end in E, while six end in Y; only one ends in S.
• Six matches appear in the Wordle answer list, and all 14 are allowed guesses.

Which words fit the D-and-L pattern?

BADLY, SADLY, ODDLY, GODLY and MADLY are the familiar adverbs in this group. Their shared -DLY ending makes them easy to recognize, but don’t assume every match uses that ending: LADLE and SIDLE put E in the final spot.

For a board score, BADLY and MADLY lead at 11 points, followed by ODDLY and GODLY at 10. Y adds value at the end, but the stronger score comes from the whole rack, not the pattern alone. LADLE and SIDLE are more recognizable alternatives when your available letters favor an E-ending word.

How should you use these matches in Wordle?

Six five-letter words with D third and L fourth are Wordle answers, and the full set of 14 is allowed as guesses. Treat _ _ D L _ as a narrow filter, then test the first two letters and the ending against your feedback; the E-versus-Y split covers nearly every match.

The endings also expose a limitation: recognizing the pattern won’t make every entry equally familiar. Nine matches are defined, while the tournament lists differ in coverage: Collins includes 14, compared with 11 in both ENABLE and NWL2023. Check your game’s word list before relying on an obscure entry, especially when a rejected guess would cost a turn.