6-letter words with K as the 3rd letter and Y as the 6th letter

This pattern is unusually tight: just 11 tournament-dictionary words put K in position three and finish with Y. Familiar choices such as likely and bakery sit beside less everyday entries like alkoxy and fakery. Every match ends in the same letter, so the useful puzzle work is comparing the first two letters and the fourth and fifth.

The K-third, Y-last pattern at a glance

• There are 11 six-letter matches, and every one ends in Y.
• The first letter F appears twice; A, B, D, H, I, J, and L each appear once.
• Collins includes all 11 words; ENABLE and NWL2023 each include 8.
• ALKoxy and JOKILY lead the scoring list at 20 points apiece.

Which 6-letter words have K third and Y last?

The matches are likely, bakery, fakery, alkoxy, jokily, dukery, fikery, hokily, ickily, pokily, and rakery. Likely and bakery are the most familiar anchors; several others are uncommon, specialized, or playful-looking.

Only 2 of the 11 are among the most common English words, while 7 have definitions in the dictionary data. That gap matters in a puzzle: a candidate can fit the visible letters and still be unfamiliar enough to overlook.

Dictionary coverage also differs by game. Collins accepts all 11, but ENABLE and NWL2023 accept 8 each, so the full set is not interchangeable across word games. Check your game's word list before relying on a less familiar match.

How to work through 6-letter words with K third and Y last

• Lock the pattern as two unknown letters, K, two unknown letters, Y; then test the remaining clues against the middle pair.
• Try familiar anchors first: likely and bakery quickly show how different beginnings can fit the same fixed letters.
• For a score-first play, compare ALKOXY and JOKILY, both listed at 20 points; the board still determines the final value.
• Treat fakery and the less familiar -ery or -ily forms as candidates, not automatic answers, because dictionary coverage varies.