6-letter words with G as the 2nd letter and N as the 3rd letter

The fixed pattern is _GN___, and its small tournament-dictionary list splits evenly between words beginning with A and I. IGNORE and IGNITE are the familiar choices; several other matches are much less common. Every match appears in Collins, while only six appear in both ENABLE and NWL2023, so check your game's dictionary before playing an unfamiliar entry.

At a glance: the _GN___ pattern

• The pattern yields 10 six-letter words in tournament dictionaries.
• Five words begin with A and five begin with I.
• Six matches end in E; Y is the next most common ending, with two.
• AGNIZE leads the score list at 16 points; IGNIFY follows at 13.

Why are there only 10 words with this pattern?

Only 10 tournament-listed words fit _GN___, making this a tight clue rather than a broad word family. IGNORE and IGNITE account for two of the common entries; the other eight fall outside the top 25,000 English words by frequency. That contrast matters in a puzzle: familiar guesses cover only a small share of the matches.

The dictionary split is another useful filter. Collins includes all 10, but ENABLE and NWL2023 each include six. Five entries have definitions in our word records, so the remaining words are especially easy to overlook or mistake for variants.

6-letter words with G second and N third: scores and endings

AGNIZE is the scoring standout at 16 points, ahead of IGNIFY at 13 and IGNOMY at 12. AGNAME scores 9; IGNORE, IGNITE, AGNATE, AGNAIL, AGNISE, and IGNARO each score 7. If you need a high-value play, start by checking whether AGNIZE fits your rack and board.

For a pattern clue, the final letter narrows the choices quickly: six words end in E, two in Y, and one each in L and O. The first letter gives an equally clean split, with five A-openers and five I-openers. This makes the ending more discriminating than the opening when your crossing letters are incomplete.