7-letter words with L as the 1st letter and M as the 3rd letter

Lock in L at the start and M in the third position, then work through the remaining five letters. LIMITED and LIMPING are recognizable examples, but only 2 entries rank among the most common English words. The pattern is much broader in tournament dictionaries than in everyday vocabulary, so a rare-looking answer may still fit your game.

The pattern at a glance

• There are 98 matching seven-letter words across the included tournament dictionaries.
• LIMITED, LIMPING, and LAMENTS are examples that show different vowel and ending patterns.
• The most frequent final letter is S, appearing in 35 matches.
• Only 2 entries count as common English words by frequency.
• LYMPHAD leads the scoring examples at 18 points.

How many words fit the L-M pattern?

There are 98 matches. That is fewer than the 156 words beginning C with M third, but more than the 66 beginning M with M third. For another comparison, changing the third letter to N while keeping L first produces 145 matches.

Dictionary coverage varies: Collins includes 94 of these words, NWL2023 includes 70, and ENABLE includes 64. Those totals overlap, so they should not be added together. A word accepted in one game may be absent from another; check your game's word list before challenging a play.

Which endings and scores stand out?

S is the clear ending leader with 35 words, while R follows at 11. Examples such as LAMENTS and LAMMERS show the S ending; LAMBER is not needed to spot the trend. If your final tile is fixed, start with S before testing the less frequent endings.

For a high-value play, LYMPHAD scores 18 points and LIMBECK scores 17. More familiar-looking options score less: LUMPKIN and LAMBKIN each reach 15, while LAMPREY scores 14. The average score is 11.1, so the top scorers sit well above the typical entry.