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161 five letter words start with DE, and the third box is spread almost as thinly as it can be.
L leads at about eleven percent, then C and R at nine, A at eight and B and N at seven. Nothing else reaches six.
DEALS, DEATH, DEPTH, DELTA and DELAY are the most common entries, and they reach five different third letters.
DEVIL, DEPOT, DEBUT and DENSE follow, so the group holds a decent stock of everyday words despite the flat spread.
DEBUG and DEFROST style forms use DE as a prefix meaning undo, while DEATH and DEPTH are ordinary roots that happen to start the same way.
That mix is what flattens the third box, since the two sources pull toward completely different letters.
Knowing which of the two you are in matters, because the prefix forms almost always end in a consonant and the roots often do not.
DEALS is the best opener. Its A, L and S are the three busiest letters across the remaining boxes and none of them repeats.
DEATH. The A is a commoner third letter than P, and its T and H are shared with several other entries.
It shares DEL with DELAY and DELVE, which is the largest three letter shape here at about eleven percent.
Several entries are abbreviations or place names rather than vocabulary, so the usable list runs shorter than 161.