5-letter words with D as the 4th letter and A as the 5th letter

Ending on A opens the door to borrowed words rich in Z and V, which is why this group scores unusually well. Four matches, ZONDA, ZAIDA, ZERDA, and WHYDA, tie at 15 points, and the whole list averages 10.3. PANDA, HONDA, and KINDA are the recognisable entries; the rest are rarer nouns.

Four words tie on 15 points in this A-final set

• 19 matches place D in slot four and A in slot five.
• ZONDA, ZAIDA, ZERDA, and WHYDA each score 15.
• The group averages 10.3 points a word.
• Z and V each open three matches, and C, K, and P open two apiece.
• No match is a Wordle answer, though all 19 are accepted guesses.

Which of these A-final words will you recognise?

KINDA, HONDA, PANDA, and VANDA are the recognisable entries: a colloquial word, a car brand, an animal, and an orchid genus. The other matches read as specialists' vocabulary, with ZONDA, KHEDA, PURDA, CNIDA, and SORDA rarely seen outside a word list. Only three of the 19 count as common.

Endings play no role here, since every match ends in A. The first letter does the heavy lifting instead: Z and V each open three matches, and those openings supply most of the group's points.

Scores, endings, and the ENABLE gap

The 10.3 average comes from concentrated power. ZONDA, ZAIDA, and ZERDA all draw on a 10-point Z, and WHYDA pairs W with Y. KHEDA adds 13, and VIFDA and VIVDA each reach 12, so the top half of the list leans on a handful of expensive letters.

Dictionary coverage is the catch. Collins lists 17 of these 19 words, NWL2023 just 11, and ENABLE only five. A strong average score therefore says nothing about validity: several high scorers are Collins-only and vanish in games that follow the North American list.