5-letter words with O as the 2nd letter and H as the 3rd letter

H is a rare middle letter, and this list shows why. LOHAN, KOHLS, MOHEL, DOHYO, MOHUA and MOHUR are transliterations from Hawaiian, Japanese and Yiddish, while COHOE, BOHEA and COHOG name a salmon, a tea and a clam. Only JOHNS counts as common English, and the whole set misses the Wordle answer list.

The O-second, H-third set at a glance

• 21 words match the pattern.
• None appear on the Wordle answer list.
• All 21 are accepted as guesses.
• Only 10 sit in ENABLE, against 20 in Collins.
• JOHNS leads scoring at 15, then KOHLS, DOHYO, COHAB, HOHED and KOHAS on 12.

Loanwords carry the H in the middle

Almost every word here entered English from somewhere else. MOHEL and KOHLS come through Yiddish, DOHYO and MOHUA through Japanese and Hawaiian, and LOHAN and MOHUR through Chinese and Persian. The pattern is a shelf of imported spellings rather than a native family.

Nine words end in S, which turns several into plurals or verbs: COHOS, BOHOS, MOHOS, TOHOS, FOHNS, KOHAS and JOHNS all take that ending. COHAB, NOHOW and HOHED sit outside the S group.

The dictionary gap, and what it means in play

This is one of the thinnest patterns for North American play. Only 10 words appear in ENABLE and 13 in NWL2023, so COHAB, DOHYO, HOHED, KOHAS, LOHAN, MOHRS, MOHUA and TOHOS stay in Collins alone. Check your game's word list before committing a rack to any of them.

Scoring is solid despite the obscurity. JOHNS tops the group at 15 on its J, KOHLS, DOHYO, COHAB, HOHED and KOHAS share 12, and NOHOW and COHOG land on 11. The average is a steady 10.6, because H is a four-point tile.

No Wordle answers, so play for points