6-letter words with L as the 4th letter and K as the 5th letter

This pattern fixes the middle pair as L-K, leaving the first three letters and final letter to vary. The resulting words are a tight group: six begin with S, while nine end in S. Only one ranks among the top 25,000 English words by frequency, so expect several unfamiliar plays alongside CHALKS and STALKS.

The pattern at a glance

• Fourteen words match the six-letter L-K pattern.
• Collins lists all 14; ENABLE and NWL2023 each list 11.
• Nine end in S, four end in Y, and one ends in O.
• WHELKY leads the scoring list at 19 points.
• Only one match is common by our frequency measure.

How many 6-letter words have L 4th and K 5th?

Fourteen words fit, and their openings are unusually concentrated: STALKS, STALKY, STALKO, SKULKS, SCULKS and SPELKS begin with S. CHALKY, CHALKS and the three W words WHELKS, WHELKY and WAULKS add the other main clusters; BAULKS and BAULKY start with B.

The ending pattern is even tighter. Nine words finish with S, including STALKS, CHALKS, BAULKS and WHELKS; four finish with Y, including CHALKY and WHELKY. That makes the final tile a useful constraint: an S ending is more than twice as common here as a Y ending.

Which matches are worth trying in a word game?

WHELKY scores 19, ahead of CHALKY at 18 and WHELKS at 16. CHALKS and BAULKY each score 15. The average score is 13.6, so the list has real scoring weight despite its small size.

Keep WHELKY in mind when a premium square can boost its K or W. The vocabulary is the catch: only one entry is common by frequency. For a board game, check the list your game uses: Collins accepts all 14, while ENABLE and NWL2023 each include 11.

For this fixed L-K pattern, memorizing the S-ending group gives you the broadest first pass.