5-Letter Words Starting With N and Ending in L

Words that start with N and end in L come up constantly in tile games, crosswords and daily letter puzzles, and this page gathers all 15 of the five-letter ones. The most useful are the common words at the top of the list; the rare ones at the bottom are worth knowing when you need to hook onto an awkward board position. NAVAL is the top scorer here, worth 8 points before any board multiplier.

How to use this page

Read the list from the top if you want the everyday words, or jump to the quick facts for the highest scorers. Click any word with a link to see every shorter word hidden inside it. When you have a specific rack, the search box at the top filters the list down to the words you can play right now.

Tips

Hooks are single letters added to the front or back of an existing word to make a new one, and they are the cheapest way to score in a crowded game. Look through the words on this page for ones that become a different valid word with one more letter, or that can be formed by extending a shorter word already on the board. Suffixes such as S, ED, ER and ING, and prefixes such as RE and UN, do most of the work. A hook lets you play a second word in parallel and collect both scores.

Questions

What is the highest-scoring word among the five-letter words starting with N and ending in L?

NAVAL scores 8 points with classic tile values, ignoring board multipliers. The full top ten is in the quick facts above; switch the tile set on the search tool if you play with different letter values.

Why are some of these words unfamiliar?

8 of the 15 words on this page are tagged rare, meaning they fall outside the usual spell-check vocabulary. They are still real words, and many are legal plays, but you should expect a challenge if someone asks you to define them.