5-letter words with P as the 1st letter and U as the 2nd letter

The P-U opening leaves plenty of familiar choices: PUNCH, PULSE, PUPPY, PURSE, and PUPIL all fit. The full set has 93 words across tournament dictionaries, but only 10 are tagged as common. Most endings are S or Y, so the final tile narrows the search quickly.

The P-U pattern at a glance

• There are 93 five-letter entries beginning PU across the tournament word lists.
• The dictionary counts overlap: Collins has 92, NWL2023 has 70, and ENABLE has 60.
• S is the most frequent final letter, appearing in 32 words; Y follows with 17.
• Only 10 entries are tagged common, so many valid choices are unusual.
• PUJAH scores 17 points before board bonuses; PUFFY and PUZEL score 16.

How many 5-letter words have P first and U second?

There are 93 tournament-list words with P in the first spot and U in the second. The Wordle answer list contributes 15 of them, and all 15 also appear in a tournament dictionary; the accepted-guess count is 92.

That distinction matters during a solve: the pattern has many legal guesses that are not possible answers. If the last tile is S, check PULLS, PUMPS, PUFFS, or PUNKS; if it is Y, PUPPY and PUSHY are examples.

Which P-U words score highest?

PUJAH leads the scoring results at 17 points. PUFFY and PUZEL follow at 16, while PUKKA reaches 15; the familiar PUPPY scores 14. Those totals make the less familiar spellings worth remembering when a premium square is open.

The ending pattern also gives a practical filter: S accounts for 32 entries, nearly twice the 17 ending in Y. Word lists differ by game, though: the set has 92 Collins entries but 70 in NWL2023, so check your game's word list before relying on an obscure play.