7-letter words with L as the 3rd letter and V as the 5th letter

Lock L into the third slot and V into the fifth, and only 27 tournament-dictionary words remain. DELIVER, BELOVED, and UNLOVED are among the recognizable matches, but just 3 entries qualify as common by the frequency cutoff. The pattern’s scoring leader, HALAVAH, is a less familiar choice, so recognition alone is a poor guide to validity.

At a glance: counts, endings, and scores

• The 27 matches appear in Collins; NWL2023 contains 20 and ENABLE contains 19.
• HALAVAH leads the scoring list at 16 points, ahead of BELOVED at 13.
• B and U each start 5 matches; R and S each start 4.
• S is the most frequent ending, closing 8 words; A and D each close 4.

How many 7-letter words fit these positions?

The answer is 27 when L occupies position three and V occupies position five. For comparison, replacing L with R in the third position produces 39 matches, while keeping L third and switching the fifth letter to I produces 443. That sharp contrast makes V the restrictive part of this particular pattern.

The first-letter split is unusually even at the top: B and U tie at 5 words apiece, with R and S tied behind them at 4 each. Final letters are less balanced. Eight matches end in S, while A and D each appear at the end of 4.

When crossing letters leave several options, checking the final S can narrow the search quickly.

Which matches score well and pass your dictionary?

HALAVAH is the point-value outlier, scoring 16; BELOVED comes next at 13, and DELIVER scores 11. The familiar option is not the scoring leader. For a high-value play, HALAVAH is worth checking against your game’s word list before you build around it.

Acceptance varies by dictionary: Collins has all 27 matches, compared with 20 in NWL2023 and 19 in ENABLE. That makes dictionary choice a real constraint, not a detail to check after the play. A word accepted in Collins may be rejected in a North American game using NWL2023.

Only 3 words in this set fall within the common-word cutoff, including DELIVER, BELOVED, and UNLOVED. The rest are less likely to come to mind during a timed solve. Treat familiar examples as recognition anchors, not as a complete picture of which entries your game accepts.