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

Four closing patterns swallow almost the whole list, with OLDEST, ARDENT, DEDUCT and BUDGET each standing for a family. The four open slots in each word decide everything, and scores stay close together: nothing here beats 11 points. Ten of the 58 count as common English words.

Where the 58 matches cluster

• Forty-two of the 58 close in one of four endings: -ST, -NT, -CT or -ET.
• Eight entries tie for the top score of 11 points.
• R opens eight matches, more than any other letter, and A follows with six.
• Fifteen matches appear in Collins alone, and 19 miss ENABLE altogether.
• Ten of the 58 rank among the 25,000 most common English words.

Why do so many matches end in -ST or -NT?

The biggest ending family is -ST with 14 words, and it splits in two: six are -IST nouns such as NUDIST, SADIST and CODIST, and six are superlatives such as OLDEST, ELDEST and WIDEST.

The 11 -NT words mostly end in -ENT or -ANT, with ARDENT, RODENT, INDENT, PEDANT and CADENT as the everyday ones and AIDANT, BIDENT and PUDENT kept alive only by Collins.

Nine -CT words follow the shape of their stems, from the plain REDACT and DEDUCT to the rare GEDACT, and eight -ET words run from BUDGET and GADGET to WIDGET and KIDLET. The dictionary split narrows the list further: 15 matches are Collins-only. Check your game's word list before leaning on an unfamiliar ending.

Which words here score the most?

Nothing beats 11 points, and eight entries share that ceiling: ABDUCT, FIDGET, GODWIT, KIDLET, KIDLIT, KIDULT, MUDCAT and WIDGET. The average is 8.7 points and the floor is 7.

The -CT verbs are the safest high scorers, with ABDUCT on 11, ADDICT, ADDUCT and DEDUCT on 10, and INDICT and INDUCT on 9. For everyday words, WIDGET and FIDGET reach the ceiling, BUDGET and MIDGET sit on 10, and GADGET on 9.