7-letter words with L as the 2nd letter and D as the 3rd letter

The pattern is _LD____, and only 11 seven-letter entries match it across the tournament dictionaries. Their first letters cluster around E and O: five begin with E, four with O, and two with A. Just one qualifies as common, so expect a mix of recognisable words and less familiar plays rather than an everyday vocabulary list.

The L-D pattern at a glance

• The full pattern is _LD____, with L second and D third.
• Eleven words match across at least one tournament dictionary.
• ELDERLY, OLDNESS and OLDSTER are among the recognisable examples.
• Six entries end in S; the other five have different final letters.
• OLDWIFE leads the scoring list at 14 points.

Which matching words score highest?

OLDWIFE is the top scorer at 14 points, ahead of ELDRICH at 13 and ELDERLY at 11. Those three lead a list whose average score is 9.5, so the highest-value option stands out from the cluster.

The spelling mix matters as much as the score. OLDWIFE begins with O, while ELDRICH and ELDERLY begin with E; together, E and O account for nine of the eleven openings. If your rack supports either start, check both before settling on the less common A options, ALDRINS and ALDOSES.

What to know about L-D words

7-letter words with L as the 2nd letter and D as the 3rd letter are unusually limited: only one of the eleven is classed as common. The ending pattern is less varied than the openings, too: six finish in S, while D, E, H, R and Y each appear once at the end.

Dictionary coverage is not identical: ENABLE contains eight matches, Collins has ten, and NWL2023 has nine. A word accepted in one list may not carry over to another, so check your game's word list before playing an unfamiliar entry such as ELDRICH or OLDWIFE.