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

These are almost all verbs built on a stem ending in -LE: WADDLE, WIGGLE, WOBBLE, WARBLE and their relatives. Nine of them supply a full set of -LED, -LER and -LES forms, which accounts for 27 of the 72 words on its own.

What to know about W-first, L-fifth words

• Collins accepts all 72, NWL2023 accepts 59 and ENABLE accepts 57.
• Everyday words: WAFFLES, WHEELED and WHEELER.
• D closes 27 words, S closes 24 and R closes 12.
• WUZZLED scores 29 and WUZZLES 28, with WRIZLED next on 20.
• The average word scores 13.4 points.

Which verbs give a full set of -LED, -LER and -LES words?

Nine stems do: WABBLE, WADDLE, WAFFLE, WAGGLE, WANGLE, WARBLE, WIGGLE, WINKLE and WOBBLE. Each gives a word ending in -LED, one in -LER and one in -LES, such as WADDLED, WADDLER and WADDLES.

The tails total 62 words: -LED 27, -LES 23 and -LER 12. That leaves only 10 words outside them, including WAVELET, WINGLET, WHITLOW, WOODLOT and WOOLLEN.

WIN- is the busiest opening with 9 words, among them WINDLED, WINKLED, WINKLES and WINGLET. WAR- opens 6: WARBLED, WARBLER, WARBLES, WARSLED, WARSLER and WARSLES.

How many have a doubled letter before the L?

31 of the 72 carry a double letter in third and fourth place, such as WABBLED, WAFFLES, WIGGLER and WOBBLES. WHEELED and WHEELER do it with the vowels.

Doubled consonants cluster in B, D, F, G, T and Z: WABBLED, WADDLED, WAFFLED, WAGGLED, WATTLED and WUZZLED. A pair of matching tiles on your rack points to those stems before any others.

WHEELED, WHEELER and WHEELIE show the same idea with a doubled vowel instead. The three are the only words in the pattern built on WHEEL.

Collins-only high scorers