6 letter words with X

What is in this list

This list holds 322 words, 0.2% of the 172,634 words this site keeps from the ENABLE word list. Every word here has 6 letters, and they average 6 letters by construction — so the interesting differences are in which letters they use. Of the 16 lists in this group it is the 6th largest: “6 letter words with A” leads with 6,569 and “4 letter words with Q” has the fewest, 16.

Points and vowels

Using this site's letter values, the average word here scores 16 points (median 16); words of the same lengths across the whole list average 11, so this list runs 5 points richer. The top scorers are BIJOUX (26), EXEQUY (26), PAXWAX (26), BANJAX (25). Point for point, BIJOUX earns the most per letter: 26 points over 6 letters, 4.3 each. X itself is worth 8 points here, which is why so many of these words outscore their length.

Vowels (A, E, I, O, U) make up 38.8% of the letters, against 38% across the whole list. 6 words are more than half vowels: ADIEUX, ALEXIA, ANOXIA, ATAXIA, EXODOI and EXUVIA. 1 word has none of them at all, leaning on Y instead — for example XYLYLS.

How the words are built

X opens 15 words (4.7%), closes 67 and sits inside the other 240. 2 words use it more than once, such as MAXIXE and PAXWAX. 16 words have a doubled letter (5%); the most common doubles are LL (6), FF (3), EE (2). The most common three-letter openings are SEX- (11, as in SEXIER), EXP- (10, as in EXPAND), TAX- (9, as in TAXEME). The most common endings are -XES (17, as in APEXES), -ING (15, as in BOXING), -ERS (8, as in BOXERS). 27.6% end in a single S — mostly plurals and verb forms of shorter words.

Word play in this list

The biggest anagram family here is EXISTS, SEXIST and SIXTES — 3 words from the same 6 letters. Altogether 14 sets of anagrams sit inside this list, covering 29 words. BANJAX is the longest word here that uses only one kind of vowel, ahead of BOLLOX.

25.8% of these words take an S on the end and stay a word (ALEXIA, ALEXIN and ANNEXE among them); after S, the most useful end letter is D, which extends 11 words. At the front, S turns 3 words into new ones (EXISTS → SEXISTS); A turns 2 words into new ones (SEXUAL → ASEXUAL); F turns 2 words into new ones (LUMMOX → FLUMMOX).

Using this list

To narrow it further, open it in the pattern finder: the rule “contains X, has 6 letters” is already filled in, and you can add a length, a fixed letter position or letters to leave out.