5-letter words with E as the 2nd letter and C as the 3rd letter

The pattern _EC__ fixes two letters but leaves three places open. Those choices are unevenly spread: R starts 13 matches and D starts 11; S closes 18. DECAY, DECOR, RECAP, and PECAN are recognizable examples; just 9 matches rank among common English words, so a familiar-looking pattern can lead to some obscure plays in a puzzle during a live game.

The E-C pattern at a glance

• There are 60 tournament-dictionary matches with E second and C third.
• R begins 13 matches, the largest first-letter group; D begins 11.
• S finishes 18 words, compared with 8 ending in Y.
• PECKY and YECHY tie at 16 points apiece.
• All 12 matching Wordle answers also appear in a tournament dictionary.

Which letters finish the most matches?

S is the runaway ending, closing 18 words; Y comes next with 8. T appears at the end of 6 matches, and O finishes 5. When E and C are already fixed, testing S or Y in the last slot checks the two largest groups first.

The opening slot has a different shape. R leads with 13 words and D follows at 11, but F and P each account for 5. RECAP and RECON show the R opening; DECAL and DECAY show why D is another strong branch.

5-letter words with E second and C third

PECKY and YECHY lead the scoring options at 16 points. KECKS and YECCH are next at 15, while PECKS scores 13. These high-value choices are unusual, so a large tile score does not make a word a natural guess.

Twelve matching words are Wordle answers, and all 60 are allowed guesses. Only 9 of the matches are common English words; dictionary coverage also differs: ENABLE includes 43, Collins includes 58, and NWL2023 includes 47. Check your game's word list before playing.