7-letter words with E as the 2nd letter and F as the 3rd letter

With E and F fixed in the middle, the first letter narrows your search quickly: 59 matches start with R, and 48 start with D. Their endings cluster just as strongly: 59 words finish in S. Only 25 entries meet our common-word cutoff, so expect plenty of less familiar game vocabulary too.

The E-F pattern at a glance

• The pattern yields 134 seven-letter words across tournament dictionaries.
• R leads the first-letter group with 59 words; D follows with 48.
• S is the most frequent final letter, appearing in 59 matches.
• ENABLE includes 114 matches, NWL2023 has 120, and Collins has 134.
• Just 25 matches fall within the top 25,000 English words by frequency.

What do 7-letter words with E second and F third look like?

The pattern produces familiar words such as REFLECT, REFUSED, DEFENSE, and DEFAULT. R- and D-starting entries dominate, while B contributes 11 and L contributes 5. That makes the first letter a strong narrowing clue when you already know the E-F pair.

Ending in S is the standout finish, with 59 matches. D comes next at 19; E and T each close 15 words. If the final tile is known, those counts point first toward an S-ending answer, then a smaller D-ending group.

Dictionary coverage varies: Collins has all 134 matches, compared with 120 in NWL2023 and 114 in ENABLE. A word accepted in one list may not appear in another, so check your game's word list before relying on an unfamiliar entry.

For scoring, JEFFING and DEFUZED each reach 21 points, the top score. DEFUZES and DEFROZE follow at 20, while REFROZE scores 19. These are raw word scores; board bonuses change the result, and an unusual high scorer is not automatically a sound play.

The word-frequency split is a practical warning: only 25 matches count as common under the stated cutoff. REFLECT and DEFENSE are easy to recognize, but the list also contains specialized or uncommon forms. Use known letters to filter first rather than treating every match as equally familiar.