6-letter words with I as the 3rd letter and L as the 4th letter

The pattern looks like __IL__, leaving two letters to solve on either side of the fixed pair. Among the recognizable matches are skills, guilty, whilst, and toilet; words such as quilts and quills also fit. Frequency offers a reality check: only 32 matches rank among the top 25,000 English words, so some candidates will feel unfamiliar even when they fit the slots.

At a glance: the shape of the list

• The pattern has 144 matches across the tournament dictionaries.
• S begins 30 matches, ahead of T with 19 and C with 13.
• A final S is especially common: 46 words end in S, versus 30 ending in D.
• Quilts, quills, exilic, smilax, khilim, and whilly each earn 15 base Scrabble points.

Which endings help narrow the pattern?

Start with the last two slots: S, D, and R are the most frequent final letters, appearing 46, 30, and 25 times. That makes a known ending a strong filter when the middle pair is already fixed.

The examples show useful word families without requiring a full guess. Failed, mailed, and hailed share an -iled ending; skills and drills finish in -ills. Try those familiar shapes before testing rarer combinations.

How do dictionary coverage and scores differ?

Dictionary coverage varies: Collins recognizes 141 matches, NWL2023 has 119, and ENABLE has 111. A word accepted in one set may not be playable in another, so check your game's word list when an unfamiliar candidate matters.

For 6-letter words with I as the 3rd letter and L as the 4th letter, quilts and quills stand out at 15 base points apiece. The list also contains 122 words with definitions, but only 32 are common by the frequency measure; knowing the pattern does not guarantee a familiar or widely accepted play.