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

The pattern _LE__ locks in the middle while leaving the first and last letters open. Seventeen matches rank among common English words, including clear, sleep, clean, and alert. The rest broaden your options for word games, but not every entry will be familiar or accepted by every game's dictionary.

At a glance: the fixed L-E pattern

• Ninety-nine tournament-dictionary words match _LE__, with L second and E third.
• Seventeen matches are common English words; clear, sleep, clean, and alert are familiar examples.
• C is the leading first letter with 16 matches; B and G follow with 15 each.
• S is the most frequent final letter at 32 words, ahead of T with 18.
• FLEXO scores 15 Scrabble points, the highest base score here; FLECK scores 14.

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

C leads the starting-letter groups with 16 words, including clear, clean, and clerk. B and G each contribute 15, with blend, bleed, gleam, and glean among the recognizable examples.

The endings cluster even more sharply: 32 words finish in S, while 18 finish in T. That makes the final position a strong next clue after _LE__; compare a possible plural such as pleas with a T-ending word such as slept.

For a neighboring pattern, changing the second letter from L to R produces 149 matches with E still third, compared with 99 here. The fixed L-E pair is a narrower filter, not a guarantee that every remaining word is common.

Wordle answers and Scrabble scores

Twenty-five matching words are Wordle answers, while 99 are allowed guesses. That makes the pattern relevant when solving, but it does not mean every playable guess is a possible answer. Treat _LE__ as a filter, then use known letters to narrow the remaining slots.

For 5-letter words with L as the 2nd letter and E as the 3rd letter, FLEXO is the top base-score play at 15 Scrabble points, followed by FLECK at 14. Dictionary coverage also varies: Collins has 98 matches, NWL2023 has 76, and ENABLE has 72. Check your game's word list before relying on an unfamiliar entry.