7-letter words with D as the 1st letter and L as the 5th letter

The pattern is D _ _ _ L _ _, with four open positions between and after its fixed letters. DEVELOP and DISPLAY show how different those middle letters can be, while DOUBLED and DRILLED add familiar past-tense forms. Only five matches fall among the 25,000 most frequent English words, so expect plenty of specialist vocabulary alongside recognizable entries.

At a glance: the D-first, L-fifth pattern

• There are 117 tournament-dictionary matches for this seven-letter pattern.
• DAZZLED leads the listed Scrabble scores at 27 points.
• DAZZLES and DAZZLER each score 26 points.
• Five matches rank among the 25,000 most frequent English words.
• The average score across the matches is 11 points.

How does the fifth-letter L compare with other D patterns?

A fifth-position L produces 117 matches after D, fewer than I (401), E (247), A (158), and O (131). It edges past N, which appears fifth in 106 D-starting words. That puts L in the middle of this set of common fifth-letter patterns, not among its leaders.

The endings are concentrated: 38 matches finish in D, 35 in S, and 21 in R. Those three endings account for most of the pattern’s shape, so checking the final letter can narrow a puzzle quickly.

Dictionary coverage differs: Collins has 116 matches, NWL2023 has 91, and ENABLE has 87. These overlapping counts are not separate pools. Since some entries appear in one tournament dictionary but not another, check your game's word list before relying on a borderline answer.

Which D-and-L words score the most?

DAZZLED is the standout at 27 points, with DAZZLES and DAZZLER close behind at 26 each. Their Z tiles make them powerful scoring plays when a premium square is available; the pattern itself does not guarantee a high score.

For a more familiar vocabulary check, try DEVELOP, DISPLAY, DOUBLED, or DRILLED against D _ _ _ L _ _. Of 117 matches, 103 have definitions, but only five meet the common-word cutoff. Treat an unfamiliar match as a dictionary check, not a likely everyday guess.