Words With EI in the Middle
100 wordsThe EI combination appears in some of English's most common words—their, receive, weight—yet follows no consistent pronunciation rules. This collection spans everyday vocabulary alongside technical terms, offering reliable options for word games at every skill level.
4-letter words
85-letter words
136-letter words
157-letter words
228-letter words
139-letter words
1310-letter words
411-letter words
612-letter words
213-letter words
4Pattern Guide
Insights and recommendations for these words.
The EI pattern breaks the old 'i before e' rule more often than it follows it, creating a trove of words that catch opponents off guard.
Vocabulary & Language
Linguistic patterns and usage statistics
The EI spelling often signals words borrowed from German (stein, poltergeist) or reflects the Great Vowel Shift's messy aftermath in native English words. Many EI words relate to deception or perception—deceive, conceive, perceive—sharing Latin roots where the pattern indicated a long 'e' sound. Scientific vocabulary adds compounds like eigenfrequency, where German 'eigen' (own, characteristic) creates technical terms.
Total Words
1,130
0.4% of dictionary
Avg Length
9.3 letters
3.4 syllables
Top Scrabble
EIGENFREQUENCY
32 points
Longest Word
REINDUSTRIALIZATION
19 letters
Parts of Speech
With 65% nouns dominating the pattern, EI words tend toward naming things rather than describing actions. The 3.4 average syllables per word reflects the heavy influence of Latin and Greek derivatives, which typically build longer, more complex terms than Germanic roots.
Middle English dominates this pattern's origins, reflecting how Norman scribes inconsistently rendered Old English sounds. German contributes notably through scientific and musical terminology, while French and Greek add scholarly and technical vocabulary. The etymology chain from EIGHTH shows how Germanic counting words preserved the EI spelling through centuries of sound changes.
Word Games
High-value words for board games
Short (2-4)
Medium (5-7)
the act of gripping something firmly with the hands (or the tentacles)
the wife of a sheik
Long (8+)
Short (2-4)
Medium (5-7)
the act of gripping something firmly with the hands (or the tentacles)
South American shrub having edible greenish plumlike fruit
Long (8+)
the state of being impossible to conceive
the state of being impossible to conceive
EIGENFREQUENCY tops both Scrabble (32 points) and WWF (36 points), but the real strategic insight lies in shorter plays. ZEIN scores nearly identically in both games (13 vs 14), while words with H gain value in WWF where it's worth 4 points instead of Scrabble's 4. SHEIKHA and HEIGHTH leverage high-value letters effectively in Scrabble, but VEIL and VEIN become more attractive in WWF for board positioning given their accessible letter costs.
Wordle
5-letter words for daily puzzles
Good Starters (E, A, R, S, T)
THEIR covers two vowels plus the common consonants T, H, and R—an excellent opener. HEIST and STEIN offer backup options that test different consonant combinations while keeping the EI pattern in play.
Length Extremes
Longest and shortest valid words
Longest
Shortest
Short EI words like LEI and SEI represent borrowings that arrived fully formed from Hawaiian and Italian respectively. The pattern stretches to REINDUSTRIALIZATION at 19 letters, where prefixes and suffixes stack onto Latin roots.
Hidden Gems
Rare but valid words to surprise opponents
discrimination on the basis of a person's age
an amateur boxer who weighs no more than 119 pounds
an informal social gathering at which there is Scottish or Irish folk music and singing and folk dancing and story telling
in a misleading way
CEILIDH (pronounced 'KAY-lee') names an informal Scottish or Irish gathering with folk music, dancing, and storytelling. This Gaelic import is valid in competitive Scrabble and catches opponents who challenge unfamiliar Celtic spellings. The word exemplifies how EI accommodates sounds from languages with very different spelling conventions.
Popular crossword answers
Words frequently used in crossword puzzles with common clues.