Enter criteria and click Find Words
Only eleven words put E first and T third, which is short enough that reading the list beats guessing at it.
Five letters appear in the second box across eleven words. N and S take three each, A and X take two each, and T manages one. No branch dominates because there is not enough list for one.
ENTER and ENTRY are the two in everyday use. EATER, EATEN and EXTRA follow, and after those the list turns technical fast.
They share their first four letters and differ only at the end, so guessing one leaves the other completely live. With the last box already fixed the pair resolves instantly, and without it neither is a good use of a turn.
EATER and EATEN behave the same way one branch over. Between those two pairs, a good slice of a very short list is locked into near duplicates.
EXTOL and EXTRA are the two words putting X in the second box. On a list this size that is a real share, and EXTRA is common enough to test early.
R closes three of the eleven, more than any other letter, and E in the fourth box covers four. Those two facts describe most of what this pattern does.
Yes. It runs E, N, T, R, Y. People read the NTR cluster as a block and lose track of which letter sits where.
Not really. It is a chemical term, sitting here alongside ESTOP and ESTOC, which are narrower still.
E in the first box is uncommon to start with, and requiring T in the third leaves almost nothing. Eleven words is the whole pattern.