6-letter words with M as the 1st letter and R as the 3rd letter

The pattern is M?R???: M is fixed at the start, R sits in slot three, and the remaining four positions vary. Of 156 tournament-dictionary entries, 36 rank among the commonest 25,000 English words; familiar options include MARKET, MARINE, and MARGIN. The third-letter R also appears in a much larger S-starting set, so the first tile sharply narrows this clue.

At a glance for M_R words

• 156 entries match the M _ R _ _ _ pattern in at least one tournament dictionary.
• MARKET, MURDER, MARINE, and MIRROR are familiar examples.
• 36 entries belong to the common-word group, roughly 23% of the matches.
• S is the most common final letter, appearing in 46 entries; N follows with 21.

How many words match M_R?

There are 156 matches. That is the same count as six-letter words with M first and N third. By comparison, 320 words start with S and have R in the third slot, making this M_R pattern a narrower branch of the same letter-position clue.

Dictionary coverage varies: ENABLE has 95 matches, NWL2023 has 105, and Collins has 153. Those groups overlap, so their counts do not add up to 156. A total of 114 entries have definitions.

The neighboring M-first, N-third pattern also has 156 matches, while the S-first, R-third pattern has 320. That contrast makes the fixed first letter a strong filter for this clue.

Which M_R words score highest?

MARQUE, MIRZAS, and MYRRHY each score 17 points before board bonuses. MURPHY and MARKKA score 16, while MURKLY scores 15. The average is 9.8 points, so the top scorers stand out; a premium square can change a play's value, but a high tile score alone does not settle whether it fits.

MARKET and MARBLE are more familiar examples than MIRZAS or MYRRHY, giving this pattern a mix of everyday vocabulary and less familiar scoring options. For a tournament rack, compare an obscure entry with your rack before building a move around it.