6-letter words with W as the 1st letter and I as the 5th letter

This pattern fixes W at the start and I just before the final letter, leaving four positions to distinguish the candidates. Collins lists 34 matches, NWL2023 lists 23, and ENABLE lists 18; those dictionary totals overlap. Only two matches meet the common-word cutoff, so expect many entries to be unfamiliar outside word games.

At a glance, W _ _ _ I _

• There are 36 tournament-dictionary matches for this six-letter pattern.
• Twenty matches end in E; T, N, S, and L are the other recorded final letters.
• WAFFIE leads the score list at 15 points.
• WABBIT, WELKIN, WIMMIN, WEBBIE, and WESKIT each score 13.

How many 6-letter words have W first and I fifth?

There are 36 matches. The ending pattern is notably lopsided: 20 finish with E, while 6 finish with T and 5 with N. S and L account for the remaining endings, so a final E is the first thing to test when you narrow down a candidate.

Familiar examples include WITHIN and WEEVIL. Other matches, such as WIMMIN, WALLIE, and WESKIT, are less likely to come to mind in everyday writing. The small common-word count makes this pattern more useful for checking a specific board or puzzle clue than for guessing from memory.

Dictionary totals differ: Collins has 34 matches, compared with 23 in NWL2023 and 18 in ENABLE. These are overlapping lists, not separate groups that add up to the total.

Which matches score well, and what is the catch?

WAFFIE is the top scorer at 15 points, with WABBIT, WELKIN, WIMMIN, WEBBIE, and WESKIT at 13 each. WITHIN and WEEVIL score 12 apiece. Those are base word scores; a premium square can change the result on the board.

The catch is familiarity: only two matches are common by the frequency measure, even though 20 have definitions in the dictionaries. Check your game's dictionary before relying on an obscure entry.