7-letter words with D as the 3rd letter and E as the 5th letter

The fixed pattern is __D_E__, with two open positions before and after the required letters. Examples range from familiar words such as address, madness, and gadgets to less common entries such as juddery. Only 17 matches fall within the top 25,000 English words by frequency, so many answers are likely to feel specialized rather than everyday.

At a glance: counts and examples

• The pattern has 156 tournament-dictionary matches, including address, kidneys, and redhead.
• The first letter R leads with 20 matches; M follows with 18.
• A total of 106 words end in S, far more than any other final letter.
• The list has 17 common words and 126 entries with definitions.
• Collins includes 149 matches, NWL2023 has 124, and ENABLE has 113.

Which letters and endings appear most?

S dominates the final position: 106 of the 156 words end in that letter. Words such as budgets, gadgets, and widgets show the familiar plural ending, while endless and sadness use the same pattern in other ways.

R is the most frequent opening, with 20 words, ahead of M at 18. Try starting with those letters when your crossing clues allow it; examples include redhead, redness, midterm, and midweek. The pattern itself does not require a particular first or last letter.

Scores and limits for this pattern

For Scrabble, juddery tops the scoring examples at 19 points. Hadjees scores 18 and midweek scores 17, while judders and judgers each reach 16. These are rack scores before any board premiums, so a double- or triple-letter square can change the result.

The scarcity of common entries is the main limitation: just 17 words rank among the top 25,000 by frequency. The 7-letter words with D as the 3rd letter and E as the 5th letter also differ by dictionary: Collins, NWL2023, and ENABLE have different totals. Check your game's word list before building a play around an unfamiliar entry.