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

The fixed pattern is _E__C: E sits in position two, and every match ends in C. Only two entries rank among the top 25,000 English words by frequency, so expect a specialist-heavy set rather than a list of everyday guesses. The opening letters offer a clue: M leads four words, while S and X each lead three.

5-letter words with E second and C fifth

• There are 18 entries in at least one tournament dictionary.
• Collins includes all 18; NWL2023 includes 16, and ENABLE includes 15.
• MEDIC and RELIC are among the two entries classed as common.
• ZEBEC leads the Scrabble scores at 18 points; XEBEC follows at 16.
• The starting letters M, S, and X account for 10 of the 18 matches.

Which of these words work in Wordle?

Two words matching _E__C appear in the Wordle answer list, and both also occur in a tournament dictionary. All 18 entries are accepted as allowed guesses in the Wordle list, but that does not make every one a likely solution.

For Scrabble, ZEBEC is the standout at 18 points, ahead of XEBEC at 16. XERIC and XENIC each score 14, while HEMIC scores 12. These face values reward the unusual Z and X; a premium square can change the total during play.

How do the starting letters narrow the choices?

M gives you four options: MEDIC, MESIC, METIC, and MELIC. S and X each give three, including SERAC and SEPIC for S, and XERIC and XENIC for X. If you know the first letter, those clusters make the short list much easier to scan.

The final C is unusually restrictive here: changing only that last letter to A gives 75 matches, while ending in S gives 539. The E-second, C-fifth pattern is also smaller than its O-second sibling, which has 26 matches. Check your game's word list before playing an unfamiliar entry; Collins and North American coverage differ.