6-letter words with H as the 3rd letter and D as the 6th letter

The scores barely move. Sixteen matches sit on 12, OXHEAD and OXHERD climb to 17, YSHEND reaches 13, and only UNHAND, UNHEAD and UNHOOD drop to 10. Five count as common, which is a lot for a shape this narrow.

Six-letter words with H as the 3rd letter and D as the 6th letter

• Twenty-two matches, every one closing on D.
• Sixteen of the 22 score exactly 12 points, an unusually flat field.
• OXHEAD and OXHERD tie on 17, and YSHEND at 13 is the only other word above 12.
• UP- opens five matches, BE- four and UN- three, so those prefixes cover 12 of the 22.
• Five count as common: BEHIND, BEHOLD, ECHOED, UPHELD and UPHOLD.

Why sixteen words share one score

The 12-point plateau grows out of the shape. H carries four points and D two, and almost every match fills the middle with one-point vowels and small consonants, so the totals converge. BEHIND, BEHOLD, BEHELD, ECHOED, SCHROD and UPHELD all land on 12 without sharing anything else.

The two breakaways both open OX-, which leaves the rare X as the only dependable way past the plateau. Every other word either matches the pack or falls below it, and UNHAND, UNHEAD and UNHOOD sink to 10.

The up-, be- and un- prefixes

UP- leads with five matches: UPHELD, UPHOLD, UPHAND, UPHAUD and UPHILD. BE- takes four in BEHEAD, BEHELD, BEHIND and BEHOLD, while UN- adds UNHAND, UNHEAD and UNHOOD. Those 12 words are compounds or old verb forms built on a preposition.

The remaining ten stay rarer: OXHEAD, OXHERD, ECHOED, SCHROD, ECHARD, MIHIED, OCHRED, BUHUND, YSHEND and COHEAD. BUHUND, MIHIED and YSHEND are the most unfamiliar of the three, and none of them counts as a common word. Collins covers 21 of the 22, so just one match here fails the full tournament set.