4-letter words ending in U

The ending is unusual in four-letter play: only 77 entries finish with U, compared with 1,110 that finish with S. Familiar choices such as MENU, TOFU and THOU sit alongside less everyday options like YUZU and CHOU. Only 9 entries count as common English words, so expect the full set to reach well beyond ordinary vocabulary.

4-letter words ending in U at a glance

• The set contains 77 four-letter words ending in U across the tournament dictionary sources.
• Just 9 of those entries count as common; MENU, TOFU and THOU are familiar examples.
• Source counts differ: Collins has 74, NWL2023 has 47, and ENABLE has 34; the groups overlap.
• T leads the first-letter counts with 10 words, followed by K with 8 and B with 7.
• JUJU tops the scoring list at 18 points, ahead of KUZU at 17.

How many 4-letter words end in U?

There are 77 tournament-dictionary entries, and their first letters cluster in a few places. T begins 10, K begins 8, and B begins 7; L and P each begin 6. That spread makes the opening letter a useful filter when your rack or clue already fixes the final U.

The contrast with other endings is striking: 1,110 four-letter words end in S, while only 77 end in U. If the final tile is fixed, treat U as a narrow search rather than expecting the broad options available with S. The same ending has 30 three-letter entries and 66 five-letter entries.

Which U-ending words score highest?

JUJU is the top scorer at 18 points, with KUZU next at 17 and YUZU at 16. Each packs high-value letters into a short word, so check the board before spending one: a premium square can change the payoff, while an awkward placement can waste the letters.

ZEBU, JUKU and ZOBU each score 15 in the ranking, and JEHU scores 14. For a more familiar contrast, MENU and TOFU are among the examples, but they do not appear among the top scorers. The average score across this set is 7.6.

What 4-letter words ending in U vary by dictionary?

The source counts are not interchangeable: Collins lists 74 entries, NWL2023 lists 47, and ENABLE lists 34. A word appearing in one group is not automatically playable in another, so check your game's word list before relying on an unfamiliar choice.

Only 61 of the 77 entries carry a definition, and just 9 rank among the most common words. That gap explains why a complete tournament list includes obscure forms alongside MENU and GURU. Treat recognition as a poor test of whether a less familiar entry is accepted.

For a broader four-letter search, compare endings with S or T; for the same U ending, the five-letter set has 66 entries. The 4-letter words ending in U remain a compact pool, with JUJU and KUZU worth remembering when points matter.