6-letter words with P as the 1st letter and L as the 3rd letter

With P fixed at the start and L in slot three, the other four letters remain open. The matches range from everyday choices such as POLICE, POLICY, PALACE and PILLOW to the high-scoring PULQUE. A word counts if it appears in at least one of ENABLE, Collins or NWL2023, so the full set is not accepted by every game.

Quick facts about this P-L pattern

• The pattern produces 139 six-letter matches.
• POLICE and POLICY are familiar examples among the matches.
• PULQUE scores 17 points; POLLEX and POLEAX score 15 each.
• S is the most common final letter, appearing in 37 matches; E and R each appear in 17.
• Collins has 136 matches, while NWL2023 has 101 and ENABLE has 91.

How many six-letter words fit P first, L third?

The pattern matches 139 words. Keeping P in place but changing the third letter to R raises the count to 185; O gives 137. That close comparison shows how sharply one known letter can narrow a six-letter search.

Dictionary coverage is uneven: Collins accepts 136 of these words, NWL2023 accepts 101, and ENABLE accepts 91. Some entries therefore appear in one tournament list but not another. Check your game's word list before committing to an unfamiliar option.

Which P-L matches score the most?

PULQUE leads the scoring examples at 17 points. POLLEX, POLEAX, POLJES and PULKHA follow at 15 apiece, while POLICY scores 13. The strongest raw scores come from words many players will know less readily than POLICE or PALACE.

The average score across the pattern is 9.8, but that does not make every high-value word a smart play. A rare entry still needs to fit the board and the game's dictionary; premium squares can change the payoff. For a more familiar option, PILLOW is another recognizable match, though it is not among the top scorers.