6-letter words with F as the 1st letter and R as the 3rd letter

F leads and R holds third, but the real story is O second: 53 matches begin with for-. Forget, former, forces, forest, formed, forgot, format and formal all sit in that group. A opens 26 and U 20, while S closes 29 matches and D closes 23.

The F-R pattern at a glance

• All 130 matches start with F and place R third.
• Fifty-three begin with for-, 26 with fa- and 20 with fu-.
• S closes 29 matches and D closes 23.
• Seventeen matches are common words.
• Forfex leads at 19, then furzes and forwhy on 18.

Why the FOR- family dominates

More than half the set opens with for-. The three letters colour verbs and nouns alike: forget, forbid, forage, forests, former, formal and forged all fit the same shape.

Fifty-three matches is about two in five of the list, so a clue for F, R and an O second almost always points here.

The for- words keep the scores modest, though. Most use one-point letters, and only forfex, forwhy and fornix break out.

Forays, forams and forbad widen the same family beyond the everyday verbs.

The verb endings that shape the list

S and D endings reflect the verb-heavy group: forced, formed, forged, forded and farmed all take -ED, while forces, forums, forests, firsts and frowns take -S.

Forby, furzes, forfex, forhow and forthy show the rarer side, and their scores jump accordingly.

Forwhy, furphy and fornix carry the rare W, X and Y tiles, and each of the three clears 15 points.

Collins holds 128 of the 130 matches, NWL2023 95 and ENABLE 92.