6-letter words with N as the 2nd letter and G as the 5th letter

The pattern is _N__G_: N locks into the second space, G into the fifth, and four letters remain open. Five matches rank among the most common English words, while 24 have dictionary definitions. The examples range from everyday picks such as enough and energy to less familiar forms such as anergy and knaggy.

What stands out in this six-letter pattern?

• There are 26 matches across the tournament dictionaries.
• E starts 8 words; I and U start 6 each.
• E is the most frequent final letter, ending 10 matches.
• S ends 6 words and Y ends 4.
• Five entries are common, and 24 have definitions.

Which letters fill the open spaces most often?

E leads at the front: enough, energy, engage, and enrage are among the examples, and E begins 8 matches overall. I and U each begin 6, so an unknown first tile is more likely to be one of those three vowels than a less frequent starting letter.

The final slot also favors E. Ten words end that way, compared with 6 ending in S and 4 in Y. If your clue leaves the last tile open, testing E first is a sound shortcut; the ending pattern narrows the search without changing the fixed N and G.

Which matches score well, and where are they accepted?

Knaggy tops the score ranking at 15 points, followed by snaggy at 11. Enough, energy, anergy, and anough each score 10, while uncage and encage score 9. The highest value belongs to an uncommon-looking word, not one of the obvious starters.

For 6-letter words with N as the 2nd letter and G as the 5th letter, dictionary coverage is the main caveat: Collins includes all 26 matches, but NWL2023 includes 17 and ENABLE includes 16. Those counts overlap, and a word accepted in one list may not work in another. Check your game's dictionary before relying on an unfamiliar entry.