7-letter words with P as the 1st letter and D as the 3rd letter

With P fixed first and D third, the pattern is P?D????. It returns 81 seven-letter entries across the tournament lists, but the count varies by dictionary: Collins includes 77, NWL2023 has 59, and ENABLE has 53. Familiar examples include PODCAST and PUDDING; PADLOCK and PODZOLS show the range from everyday vocabulary to less familiar plays.

At a glance: counts, common words, and score

• The pattern has 81 tournament-listed seven-letter matches.
• Collins contains 77 matches, the largest count among the three dictionaries.
• NWL2023 includes 59 entries, while ENABLE includes 53.
• Only 4 matches rank among the most common English words by frequency.
• Average score is 12; PODZOLS leads at 19.

7-letter words with P as the 1st letter and D as the 3rd letter

The pattern is P?D????: P stays fixed, D takes the third tile, and the other five positions remain open. Endings cluster heavily on S: 33 entries finish there, compared with 9 ending in R and 6 in D. That S-heavy tail makes PUDDLES and PADDLES quick to recognize, while PODCAST and PADLOCK show how different the rest of the set can look.

The pattern also has fewer matches than several nearby choices: with M first and D third, the seven-letter pattern has 142 entries; with R first, it has 127. The 81 matches here span different tournament dictionaries, so a word accepted in one game may not appear in another.

Which P-and-D words score the most?

PODZOLS tops the scoring list at 19 points. PADDOCK, PIDDOCK, PUDDOCK, and PODEXES each score 17; PADLOCK, PADSHAH, and PEDWAYS score 16. The Z gives PODZOLS its edge, so keep that option in mind when your rack and board make the word playable; for a more familiar choice, PODCAST, PUDDING, and PADDING stand out, though only 4 entries meet the common-word cutoff.

The high scorers are not necessarily the easiest words to place: unusual vocabulary can be harder to verify at the table. This pattern has plenty of less familiar entries alongside recognizable words, and the dictionary counts differ. Treat the score as a starting point, then confirm the word against the list used in your game.