6-letter words with R as the 4th letter and A as the 5th letter

The fixed pattern is _ _ _ R A _. Within those six slots, the first letter varies most: S begins 24 entries, while A begins 19. Just 14 words meet the common-frequency cutoff, so expect a mix of recognizable choices such as spiral, plural, and betray alongside less familiar terms.

Pattern facts at a glance

• The full pattern has 174 tournament-dictionary entries.
• S is the most frequent opening letter, with 24 words; A follows with 19.
• S dominates the final slot: 59 words end in S, compared with 26 ending in L.
• Only 14 entries fall among the top 25,000 English words by frequency.

Which endings dominate this R-A pattern?

S is the clear leader at the end, appearing in 59 words. That makes plural, extras, operas, and zebras useful candidates when your last tile is S. L ranks second with 26, and Y follows with 16; spiral, floral, astral, and astray show those less common endings.

The total depends on your game’s dictionary. Collins includes 169 of these words, compared with 121 in NWL2023 and 107 in ENABLE. So a word accepted in one tournament list may not work in another; check your game’s word list before challenging.

6-letter words with R as the 4th letter and A as the 5th letter

For score-focused plays, hijrah leads at 19 points, followed by shiraz at 18 and zebras and zabras at 17 each. Thorax, swaraj, and jarrah each score 16. These are stronger tile-value choices than common-looking spiral, but the best play still depends on your rack and board.

A practical clue-solving rule: lock in the R-A pair, then test the final letter before cycling through openings. The S ending alone accounts for 59 options, while the 14 common words are a much smaller shortlist. Remember that a high tile score does not guarantee a playable word in every dictionary.