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

The pattern is L???O??, with L fixed at the start and O in the fifth slot. Only 7 matches rank among the top 25,000 English words by frequency, so many entries are uncommon. The neighboring L-and-I pattern has 290 matches, while L-and-E has 208; this O pattern is a much narrower search.

7-letter words with L first and O fifth at a glance

• The pattern has 88 entries across the tournament dictionaries counted here.
• Only 7 entries meet the site’s common group.
• Collins includes 83 matches, NWL2023 includes 68, and ENABLE includes 59.
• S is the most frequent final letter, with 38 words; E follows with 11 and D with 10.
• Liftoff, liquors, lawbook, lavrock, lapwork, and laylock each score 16.

Which words score highest?

Six entries tie for the top score of 16: liftoff, liquors, lawbook, lavrock, lapwork, and laylock. Liftoff and liquors are more familiar choices; the other four are less everyday-looking options to keep in mind when checking a game rack.

Legwork, lowboys, and luchoth score 15, while leadoff reaches 14. The average score across the matches is 10.4, so the six top scorers sit well above the group’s typical value. Check the specific game dictionary before playing an unfamiliar entry.

How can you narrow the L-and-O pattern?

Start with the final letter if you have another crossing clue: 38 matches end in S, far more than the 11 ending in E or 10 ending in D. Lessons, laptops, and lotions show how often an S can complete a familiar plural.

For 7-letter words with L first and O fifth, familiar anchors include lookout, lockout, letdown, and logbook. Less common entries include leghorn, lactone, and leptons. The frequency measure marks just 7 matches as common, so don’t treat recognition as a reliable test of validity.

Dictionary coverage differs: 83 entries appear in Collins, compared with 68 in NWL2023 and 59 in ENABLE. That gap matters in tournament play; a word accepted in one list may be missing from another.