6-letter words with H as the 1st letter and K as the 3rd letter

The pattern fixes H _ K _ _ _, leaving the last three letters to separate the entries. Only two of these words fall within the top 25,000 English words by frequency, so HIKING and HIKERS stand apart from a largely specialist group. Eleven entries have definitions, and the remaining matches are less transparent to a casual solver, so the fixed K beats guessing from the first letter alone.

The H-K pattern at a glance

• Combined tournament dictionaries produce 13 matches for H _ K _ _ _.
• Only HIKING and HIKERS are common by the top-25,000 frequency cutoff.
• Seven matches end in S; G appears twice at the end.
• HOKKUS tops the score list at 17, with HOKILY next at 16.
• Collins covers 12 entries, NWL2023 nine, and ENABLE eight; the source sets overlap.

How many 6-letter words have H first and K third?

Thirteen 6-letter words have H first and K third. For comparison, H with R in position three matches 98 words, while H with L there matches 90; K is a much narrower route through the same first-letter family.

HIKING and HIKERS offer the most recognizable foothold, but they are only two common entries. The other matches are HAKEEM, HAKIMS, HAKARI, HAKAMS, HAKEAS, HIKOIS, HOKIER, HOKILY, HOKING, HOKKUS, and HOKUMS. Several are less familiar, so check your game's dictionary before playing one.

Dictionary coverage differs across the combined set: Collins has 12 matches, NWL2023 has nine, and ENABLE has eight. Those counts overlap, so adding them does not give the number of unique words. The combined count remains 13.

Which endings and scores stand out?

Seven of the 13 matches end in S; G is next with two, while I, M, R, and Y each finish one. That makes final S the strongest branch to test when the sixth letter is unknown. HIKERS and HAKIMS show the pattern, alongside less familiar S-ending entries.

For 6-letter words with H first and K third, HOKKUS leads the score list at 17 and HOKILY follows at 16. HAKEEM, HAKIMS, HOKUMS, and HAKAMS each score 15; the set averages 14.3. High scores do not make every entry a familiar guess, so use the letter pattern to narrow candidates before relying on score.