6-letter words with D as the 1st letter and L as the 3rd letter

The pattern fixes D at the start and L in the third slot, leaving four letters open. That produces 55 tournament-dictionary entries, but just 6 rank among the most common English words. Collins recognizes 52, NWL2023 recognizes 44, and ENABLE recognizes 40; the lists overlap, so these are not separate piles to add together.

The D-L pattern at a glance

• 55 entries meet both fixed-letter positions across tournament dictionaries.
• DELUXE tops the scoring list at 14 points.
• Final S appears most often, in 15 words; E follows with 12.
• Only 6 matches count as common among the top 25,000 English words.

Which endings show up most often?

S is the leading final letter, with 15 matches, while E ends 12. DELAYS and DELTAS illustrate the S group; DELETE and DELUGE are E-ending choices. Once D and L are fixed, checking the final slot gives you a quick way to narrow the remaining letters.

Other reported endings trail: D closes 5 words, while R and T each close 4. DOLLAR ends in R, and DULLED ends in D, so a repeated D does occur. The final-letter counts show how varied the endings are even within this narrow pattern.

Together, S and E account for 27 of the 55 matches, just under half. That makes suffixes a strong first filter, but it still leaves many candidates; use the middle letters to separate them.

How should you use this pattern?

• Start with familiar candidates such as DOLLAR, DELETE, DELAYS, and DELUGE; the six common matches are only a small share of the set.
• For score hunting, DELUXE is worth 14 points, ahead of DELPHS at 12 and DALEDH and DELINK at 11 each.
• Expect fewer matches than nearby patterns: D-L has 55, compared with 104 for D-N and 168 for S-L.
• For 6-letter words with D first and L third, lock both, then test endings before cycling the middle letters.