6-letter words with I as the 1st letter and N as the 6th letter

Both outer letters are fixed, so the middle four slots do all the work across these 15 matches. INTERN is the only one that ranks inside the top 25,000 English words; most of the rest lean on the old in- and im- prefixes. A set this small can be worked through by hand in a single pass.

What stands out in this 15-word set?

• 15 six-letter words match, and every one of them finishes on N.
• INTERN is the only common match; the other 14 fall outside the top 25,000 words.
• 11 open with IN- or IM-, as INTURN, INBORN, IMPUGN and IMPAWN show.
• IMPAWN leads the scores at 13, then IMPUGN on 11 and ICEMAN on 10.
• 14 of the 15 carry a definition, so the list holds few empty forms.

6-letter words with I as the 1st letter and N as the 6th letter

The 15 matches are a small slice of the six-letter words that open with I. Keep that same opening and swap the final N for S and the count jumps to 101; swap it for E and you still get 72. Only a final C, on 10 words, gives a tighter set than this one.

The pattern says something about how English builds words. An I at the front rarely lands on a final N unless the word comes from the in- or im- prefix, which is why nine of the entries sound like ordinary vocabulary even when they are not.

Where the IN- and IM- matches come from

The in- family supplies nine matches: INTERN, INBORN, INTRON, INULIN, INTOWN, INTURN, INDIGN, INSPAN and INWORN. Two more wear the im- form, IMPUGN and IMPAWN, where the prefix bends before a P. Both spellings keep the N of the prefix in place, so every word in the group ends on the same letter it started with.

That leaves four matches outside the prefix camp: ICEMAN, its plural ICEMEN, ISATIN and ISOGON. ICEMAN and ICEMEN are easy enough to spot, but ISATIN and ISOGON are chemistry and geometry terms, so they are the pair most solvers will miss.

One entry that only Collins will take