5-letter words with A as the 1st letter and U as the 3rd letter

The pattern is A _ U _ _: the second, fourth, and fifth letters remain open. Only five matches rank among the commonest English words, so ADULT, ABUSE, ACUTE, AZURE, and AMUSE are easier to recognize than many entries. All 32 appear in at least one tournament dictionary, but acceptance differs by word list.

How many 5-letter words have A first and U third?

• There are 32 tournament-dictionary matches for the A _ U _ _ pattern.
• ADULT, ABUSE, ACUTE, AZURE, and AMUSE are the five common matches.
• The final letter is E most often, appearing in eight matches.
• S is the ending letter for six matches; A ends five.
• The average tile score is 9.3 points.

Which A _ U _ _ words score highest?

ABUZZ leads the scoring list at 25 points. Its Zs do the heavy lifting, so it is a strong rack play when you can place the word without sacrificing a premium square.

AZUKI scores 18, while AZURY scores 17. Those less familiar words can rescue a rack with a Z, but check your game's dictionary before committing them.

AZURE, AQUAE, and AQUAS each score 14. By contrast, ADULT and ABUSE are recognizable options with more ordinary tile values; the pattern alone does not make a word a scoring play.

Do these words work in Wordle and word games?

Five matches are Wordle answers, and all five also appear in a tournament dictionary. The full set has 32 allowed guesses, so the pattern leaves many more possible guesses than answers.

Dictionary coverage is uneven: Collins includes 30 matches, NWL2023 includes 22, and ENABLE includes 18. Those counts describe separate word lists, not a promise that every entry works in every game. Treat the familiar words as safer guesses, and verify unusual entries such as AQUAE or ANURA against your game's list.

Twenty-five of the 32 entries have definitions, which helps when a clue points to an unfamiliar word.