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6-letter words with E as the 1st letter and N as the 3rd letter

Just 11 six-letter words have E as the first letter and N as the third, among them ENNEAD, EONIAN and ERNING.

11 wordsTop pick ENNEADHighest score ESNECY 11

With E in 1st place, E is the most common 3rd letter (58 words). The bar under each letter shows the size of its list.

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Best words to play first 11 · most-used first

  • ENNEAD7
  • ERNING7
  • EANING7
  • EONIAN6
  • ENNAGE7
  • ENNOGS7
  • ENNUIS6
  • ENNUYE9
  • EONISM8
  • ESNECY11

Showing the top 10 of 11 words. See every valid word

All valid words 11

A to Z. Includes rare and Collins-only words. Linked tiles open the word's meaning, score and rhymes.

  • EANING7
  • ENNAGE7
  • ENNEAD7
  • ENNOGS7
  • ENNUIS6
  • ENNUYE9
  • EONIAN6
  • EONISM8
  • ERNING7
  • ESNECY11
  • EUNUCH11

Highest-scoring words

Scrabble and Words With Friends points, before board bonuses
WordScrabbleWords With FriendsDictionaries
ESNECY1112Collins only
ENNUYE911All three
EONISM810All three
ENNEAD79All three
ERNING710Collins only
EANING710Collins only
ENNAGE710Collins only
ENNOGS710Collins only
EONIAN68All three
ENNUIS69All three

This frame is tiny and strange. Eleven words fit, and none of them is among the commonest English words. Most are leftovers from the Collins list, so the first job is knowing which game you are playing before you commit tiles to the board or write letters into a grid.

The frame at a glance

  • 11 words fit E in position 1 and N in position 3.
  • 5 of them contain a double N: ENNEAD, ENNAGE, ENNOGS, ENNUIS and ENNUYE.
  • ESNECY scores highest at 11 points; ENNUYE follows at 9.
  • Endings are scattered: E, G and S each close two words, and D, H, M, N and Y close one each.

Which dictionary accepts these words?

Collins accepts all 11. NWL2023 and ENABLE accept only 6 each, so five of the eleven will be challenged off the board in North American games.

EANING and ERNING are the ones to double-check, since both look like forms of ordinary verbs but come from a narrow corner of the language. Check your game's word list before you play any of them; a rack holding E and N rarely needs that gamble when a safer word fits.

How do you actually use a pattern this narrow?

You rarely build toward it. You meet it when a crossword gives you E_N___ and nothing else, or when a board row leaves an E and an N two squares apart. Then the double-N group is your first guess, because five of the eleven share it.

Compare the odds: the P-and-N frame in the same length holds 163 words and the M-and-N frame holds 156. An E opener gives you far fewer choices than either of those, so each fixed letter does a lot of work and a stray extra letter in your crossword grid will cut the list to one or two names fast.

Spotting the French import

Tip

ENNUIS and ENNUYE both come from the French for boredom. If your clue suggests weariness, try them before the odd ones like EONISM.

Questions people ask

How many 6-letter words have E first and N third?
There are 11 of them. They include ENNEAD, ERNING, EANING, EONIAN, ENNAGE, ENNOGS, ENNUIS, ENNUYE, EONISM and ESNECY. Collins lists every one, while NWL2023 and ENABLE list six.
Which of these words scores the most in Scrabble?
ESNECY scores 11 points in Scrabble before any board bonuses. ENNUYE is next with 9, then EONISM with 8. The frame has no J, Q, X or Z words, so the ceiling stays low.
Which of these words end in S?
Two end in S: ENNOGS and ENNUIS. Two end in G (ERNING and EANING) and two end in E, so the final letter does not narrow the list much and you need the third letter to do the work.

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