5-letter words with S as the 2nd letter and R as the 5th letter

Only vowel-first words survive the frame: four begin with A, four with E, two with O and one with U. Asker, aster, esker and ester anchor a set of mostly specialist entries, and ester plus usher double as Wordle answers. Scrabble scoring stays modest because no match contains a J, Q, X or Z.

What the vowel-first S-R words have in common

• All 11 matches begin with a vowel: A takes four, E four, O two and U one.
• Oscar and usher are the only entries inside the 25,000 most common English words.
• Ester and usher are the two matches that appear on the Wordle answer list.
• Asker, esker and eskar tie for the top Scrabble score, 9 points each.
• Collins and NWL2023 carry all 11 words; ENABLE carries 10 and drops oscar.

5-letter words with S as the 2nd letter and R as the 5th letter

Seven of the eleven end in -er, three in -ar and one, astir, in -ir. The -er majority explains the flat scores, because the suffix is built from one-point tiles and nothing in the group reaches double figures.

The opening tiles split evenly between A and E, which take four words each. Asker, asper, aster and astir fall under A; escar, eskar, esker and ester under E. Oscar and osier use O, and usher is the lone U entry.

How high do these words score, and where do they work?

Asker, esker and eskar share the top score at 9 points, and usher follows on 8. The average is 6.9, so the leaders sit only a little above the middle of the group.

ENABLE is the one list that skips oscar, so ten of the eleven words survive there while Collins and NWL2023 keep the full set. Wordle accepts all eleven as guesses, yet only ester and usher rank as answers. Confirm an unfamiliar form such as eskar against your game's word list before you play it.