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

The fixed pattern is _ET__, leaving the first, fourth, and fifth letters open. Familiar matches include METAL, METER, SETUP, and FETCH, but only 15 of the 85 words rank among the most common English terms. That mix makes the pattern easy to recognize and surprisingly broad for word games.

At a glance: the E-T pattern

• The _ET__ pattern has 85 entries across the tournament dictionaries counted here.
• Seventeen matching words appear in the Wordle answer list, while 84 are accepted guesses.
• JETTY leads the scoring examples at 15 points; ZETAS and KETCH score 14 each.
• M is the most frequent first letter, with 12 matches; F follows with 11.
• S is the most frequent final letter: 26 words end in S.

Which letters make the strongest matches?

METAL, METRO, METER, and METRE show why M is a productive opening: 12 words start with it. F is close behind with 11, including FETCH and FETUS. B and R each open nine entries, so those letters are strong candidates when the first tile is unknown.

The final letter offers an even sharper clue. Twenty-six words end in S, far more than the next most common ending, L, with eight. If your pattern is _ET__ and the last tile is S, try familiar examples such as SETUP or BETAS before spending guesses on obscure options.

How many 5-letter E 2nd, T 3rd words work in Wordle?

Seventeen of these words are Wordle answers, and 84 are allowed guesses. Those totals serve different purposes: the answer count measures possible solutions, while the guess count includes words you can enter to test letters. METAL and FETCH are recognizable examples, but the answer list is not limited to everyday vocabulary.

Dictionary coverage also changes the usable list. Collins contains 85 matches, compared with 68 in NWL2023 and 64 in ENABLE. The full set therefore will not work in every tournament game; check your game's word list before relying on a less familiar entry.

For scoring, JETTY is the standout at 15 points, while high-value letters matter more than the pattern itself.