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

Fixing H first and L third gives the frame H _ L _ _ _. Ninety words answer to it, and the HA- opening dominates: HALVED, HALLOW, HALIDE, and HALUTZ account for 39 of them, with HEL- and HOL- supplying most of the rest. Eleven entries rank as common English words.

The H-L pattern at a glance

• Ninety six-letter words hold H first and L third.
• HA- opens 39 of them; HOL- adds 22 and HEL- another 15.
• S ends 24 words, D ends 15, and R ends 12.
• Thirteen matches close on -ED and 12 on -ER.
• HALUTZ scores 18, HALLUX 16, and HALVAH 15.
• Eleven entries are common, from HELPED to HOLLOW.

Why HA- dominates the opening slot

Thirty-nine matches begin HA, and most put a third consonant right after the L: HALIDE, HALVED, HALTER, HALVES, and HALLOW. The HAL- run even supplies the three top scorers, HALUTZ, HALLUX, and HALVAH.

The other openings are thinner. HEL- and HOL- together account for 37 words, from HELMET and HELIUM to HOLDER, HOLLOW, and HOLMES, while HI- and HU- barely register with 11 between them.

Past tenses and agent nouns crowd the endings

Thirteen words end in -ED, and they are all past tenses: HELPED, HALTED, HALVED, HELVED, HULKED, HOLKED, and HULLED. Another 12 close on -ER, the agent-noun ending behind HOLDER, HELPER, HELLER, HOLLER, and HALTER.

The two share a stem more often than you would expect. HELPED pairs with HELPER, HALTED with HALTER, and HULLED with HULLER, so a single root can feed both a past tense and a person or thing. That overlap is a strong clue when only the first four letters are known.

How the scores stack up