6-letter words with D as the 3rd letter and S as the 6th letter

The fixed D and final S leave four open positions, and the resulting group ranges from everyday plurals such as VIDEOS and ORDERS to less familiar entries. Only 26 of the 199 words rank among the top 25,000 English words by frequency, so many are more at home in a word game than in everyday conversation. Use the pattern to narrow a rack or solve a clue, then test the word in your game’s dictionary.

6-letter words with D as the 3rd letter and S as the 6th letter

• There are 199 tournament-dictionary entries matching the D _ _ _ _ S pattern.
• MODELS, ORDERS, VIDEOS, and JUDGES are recognizable examples.
• M is the most common first letter, with 20 matching words.
• KUDZUS leads the scoring examples at 20 points.

How do the dictionaries differ on this pattern?

Collins includes 199 matching words, compared with 151 in NWL2023 and 146 in ENABLE. Those totals describe separate word lists, not counts to add together. A word accepted in Collins can still be absent from a North American game, so check your game’s chosen dictionary before building a play around an unfamiliar entry.

The familiarity gap is noticeable: 166 entries have definitions, but just 26 meet the common-word cutoff. Start with words you know, such as BODIES, LADIES, BADGES, and RIDERS; treat rarer options as candidates to verify rather than assuming every matching spelling will be accepted in your game.

Which matching words score the most?

KUDZUS scores 20 points, ahead of HODJAS, HADJIS, and HADJES at 17 each. These scores make the unusual letters do the work: K, Z, and J carry more value than the common letters in MODELS or PEDALS. The average score across the pattern is 9.2.

For a more familiar option, JUDGES scores 15, while VODKAS scores 14. The pattern is also much narrower than its nearest same-ending alternatives: with A in the third position, 666 words match, and with I, 572 match. Keep the D fixed only when your clue or rack demands it.