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

The fixed frame is T?L????: T in the opening slot, L in the third, with four letters still open. Of the 120 matching entries, only six are common, so TALKING, TELLING, TALENTS, and TALLEST are the easiest footholds. The full set ranges from everyday forms to specialist terms, which matters when your game checks a tournament lexicon.

T first and L third at a glance

• 120 matches fit the fixed frame T?L????.
• TALKBOX leads the Scrabble scores at 20 points.
• S is the final letter in 57 entries; N is next with 10.
• Six entries are common in English frequency rankings.
• Definitions are available for 97 of the 120 words.

Which endings occur most often in this pattern?

S dominates the final position: 57 of the 120 words end with it, while N comes next at 10. That makes the plural and verb-form endings worth checking early when you have a final S on your rack.

Start with familiar examples such as TALKING, TELLING, TALENTS, TALLIES, and TALLest. These show how varied the middle letters can be even with T and L fixed; the pattern does not mean every answer is a simple plural or an everyday word.

Which T-and-L words score well in Scrabble?

TALKBOX is the top scorer at 20 points, with TOLZEYS at 19 and TELEFAX at 17. Those stand out against the group’s average score of 9.2. If you have a high-value letter, look for a way to place it on a premium square rather than spending turns on a low-scoring familiar form.

Dictionary coverage varies: Collins accepts 119 of these entries, compared with 86 in NWL2023 and 79 in ENABLE. TALKING and TELLING are easy to spot, but less familiar options such as TOLZEYS show why a word’s presence in one tournament list does not guarantee acceptance in another. Check the word list used by your game before challenging.