5-letter words with M as the 1st letter and D as the 5th letter

The M???D frame leans hard on verbs: MOVED, MINED, MUTED and MATED all spend their last two slots on -ED. Ten matches are Collins-only, so a word such as MAAED or MARID may be missing from smaller game lists. Six matches count as everyday English, and MOUND is the only one drawn from the Wordle answer list.

M???D at a glance

• Forty-three matches run from M at the front to D at the back.
• Thirty-one of them close with -ED, a past-tense tail.
• MAZED and MOZED tie at 17 points, both on a Z.
• Six matches are common English; MOUND is the only Wordle answer.
• Ten matches, MAAED and MOZED among them, sit in Collins alone.

Why the -ED tail covers most of the list

Thirty-one of the 43 matches end in -ED, so the pattern behaves like a list of completed actions: MOVED, MIXED, MUTED, MOWED and MUSED. A takes the second slot in 12 matches and O in 10, which is what pushes forms like MOWED, MACED and MOOED toward the front of the list.

The other twelve matches drop the E and simply close on D. MOUND, MOULD and MONAD belong here, and they are the ones to watch once your grid rules out an E in the fourth slot.

Z and X carry the top of the scoring table

MAZED and MOZED each score 17, and every point of the gap comes from the Z in the middle. The next group, MIXED, MAXED and MUXED, stops at 15 on an X. No other match clears 12, so the Z and X words are the only realistic targets when a fixed M-D frame leaves you needing points.

Words that smaller lists leave out