Enter criteria and click Find Words
260 five letter words start with MA, and the third letter divides them more evenly than most.
N leads at about sixteen percent, R at fifteen, T at nine and L at eight. Nothing dominates.
MARCH, MAJOR, MAKES, MATCH and MAYBE are the most common entries, and they cover four different third letters.
A good part of the rest is names, so the usable list is shorter than 260 suggests.
Those two three letter shapes carry nearly a third of the group between them, and they lead to very different endings.
Testing which one you are in is usually worth more than testing any single later letter.
MARCH first, since it covers the R branch and tests C and H, which almost nothing else here uses.
MAKES second, because its K and S reach a completely different part of the group without repeating anything MARCH ruled out.
After those two the group is thin enough that the remaining letters matter more than the branch does.
MATCH. Its T and C sit on busier third and fourth boxes than the G and I in MAGIC, so it narrows more on a miss.
Enough to matter. Place names and first names cluster heavily on the R and I branches, so treat those counts with some caution.
Not really. It sits fairly alone on the P branch, which makes it a reasonable late guess once the busier letters have failed.