6-letter words with K as the 1st letter and E as the 5th letter

The pattern is K _ _ _ E _, so the fifth letter is fixed while the middle three remain open. You’ll see everyday words such as KITTEN beside less familiar tournament entries. Only 15 of the 137 are among the top 25,000 English words by frequency, so a match in a word game does not guarantee a word you use often.

6-letter words with K as the 1st letter and E as the 5th letter

• The pattern K _ _ _ E _ has 137 tournament-dictionary matches.
• Collins includes 135 matches; NWL2023 includes 91, and ENABLE includes 81.
• KHAZEN is the top scorer at 22 points; KAMEEZ follows at 21.
• KILLED, KICKED and KISSED all end in D, the most common final letter.

Which final letters appear most often?

D leads with 44 words, followed by S with 35 and R with 28. Those three endings account for 107 of the 137 matches, so testing a final D, S or R narrows the pattern much faster than starting with a rare ending.

Examples make the groups easy to scan: KILLED and KICKED end in D, KISSES ends in S, and KILLER ends in R. The remaining matches finish with N, L, T, Y or H; only two end in H.

How do you narrow the K-first, E-fifth pattern?

Start with the final tile if your puzzle gives you one. D, S and R cover most of this set, while N, L, T, Y and H are smaller groups. Then use known middle letters to distinguish entries such as KEEPER, KIDNEY, KERNEL and KITTEN.

The mean score is 12.8, but the top values come from less familiar words: KHAZEN scores 22, while KAMEEZ scores 21. Treat those as score-led possibilities, not everyday vocabulary.

Dictionary coverage also differs: the counts overlap, and not every entry appears in every tournament list. Collins contains 135 of the 137 matches. Check your game’s word list for acceptance.