6-letter words with I as the 2nd letter and E as the 3rd letter

The fixed pair is the -IE- digraph, the one that gives PIECES, PIERCE, FIERCE, SIERRA and DIESEL their shape. Because that digraph needs a consonant in front of it, P and S do most of the opening work, on 14 and 12 matches. Only 11 of the 84 words sit in the common tier, and the best scores lean on V, W or K.

What the _IE_ pattern holds

• 84 six-letter matches hold I in the second slot and E in the third.
• No match begins with a vowel; P starts 14 words and S starts 12.
• 26 matches end in S, mostly plurals such as PIECES, FIELDS and NIECES.
• 11 matches are common words, and 60 have a dictionary definition.
• VIEWLY leads the scores on 15, ahead of KIEKIE on 14.

6-letter words with I as the 2nd letter and E as the 3rd letter

Two other second letters crush this set: R gives 254 matches with E third, and E itself gives 187. I sits on 84. The third slot behaves the same way in reverse, because N takes 344 matches there and L takes 213, while E lands on 84.

Most matches still read like ordinary speech. PIECES, FIELDS, VIEWED, SIERRA, DIESEL, PIERCE, FIERCE and YIELDS are all familiar, and the -IE- spelling carries the sound in every one of them.

Does any match begin with a vowel?

No. None of the 84 words opens on A, E, I, O or U, which follows directly from the pattern. English puts a consonant before this -IE- digraph in a six-letter word, so a vowel in the first slot is simply not an option here.

That narrows a grid fast. P opens 14 matches, S follows on 12, D on 9 and L on 8, and the rest scatter across F, T, N, V and a few others. If your puzzle rules out the P and S openings, the list shrinks by nearly a third.

Where the 15 points come from