6-letter words with G as the 1st letter and W as the 4th letter

The pattern fixes two positions but leaves the other four open, and the result is unusually small: only 10 tournament-dictionary entries. Growth is the standout familiar answer; the rest range from grower and growls to less common forms such as godwit and grewed. The endings split neatly between D and R.

A tight pattern at a glance

• Exactly 10 six-letter entries begin with G and place W in position four.
• Collins lists all 10; ENABLE and NWL2023 each list 9.
• Growth is the sole entry counted as common by word frequency.
• Growth and growly tie for the top score at 13 points.
• Three entries end in D, and three end in R.

Which matches score the most?

Growth and growly lead at 13 points apiece, while glowed, gnawed, godwit, and grewed each score 11. Grower, growls, glower, and gnawer make up the 10-point group. The full set averages 11 points, so the top pair sits only two points above the average.

Growth is the obvious familiar anchor, but do not assume every GROW- form fits. The fourth tile must be W: growth, grower, growls, growly, and glower all satisfy it. Godwit and gnawed show how varied the remaining letter shapes are.

For a quick scan, group candidates by their endings rather than by the shared opening. The matches have six ending choices, with D and R occurring most often. That split is a better first filter than treating all 10 spellings as equally likely.

How do 6-letter words with G first and W fourth fit a clue?

D and R tie at three endings apiece; H, S, T, and Y appear once each. If your clue gives a final letter, start with D or R for the broadest branch, then check the singleton endings individually.

Collins includes all 10 matches, but ENABLE and NWL2023 each include 9. That one-word gap matters in tournament play: a valid answer in one list can fail in another, so check the word list used by your game before committing to an unfamiliar entry.

Only growth qualifies as common by frequency, so most of the remaining forms are poor guesses when you need an everyday word. For a fixed-letter puzzle, though, the exact positions matter more than familiarity: keep W in slot four, then use the final letter to narrow the choices.