6-letter words with H as the 2nd letter and O as the 4th letter

The pattern is _H_O__, with the first, third, fifth and sixth letters open. CHOOSE, THEORY and THROAT are recognizable matches; many other entries are less familiar. Only 10 of the 55 are among the commonest English words, so start with the everyday examples when solving a clue, then widen your search if they do not fit.

6-letter words with H as the 2nd letter and O as the 4th letter

• There are 55 matching words across the tournament dictionaries counted here.
• Collins includes 52 matches, NWL2023 includes 41, and ENABLE includes 36; the lists overlap.
• The first letter is S in 21 words, T in 13 and C in 9.
• The most common final letter is S, appearing in 19 matches; E follows with 7.

Which letters start and end the matching words?

S leads the starting-letter group with 21 words, well ahead of T at 13 and C at 9. That makes SH- a strong first branch to check. SHOOTS, SHROUD and SHROOM show how different the remaining letters can be while H and O stay fixed.

S also dominates the final position: 19 words end in S. Examples include CHOOSY, THROWS and SHOOTS.

Seven end in E, as in CHOOSE and THRONE, while THEORY ends in Y. If your clue fixes the last letter, use that constraint before scanning the full set.

Which matches score highest, and what should you watch for?

SHMOCK is the top scorer at 17 points. WHOOMP and CHROMY follow at 16 each; WHOOSH, SHROFF, CHOOKS, SHLOCK and WHOOFS each score 15. These unusual high-value entries can beat familiar words on a tile-score play, but they are not everyday vocabulary.

This pattern has 46 defined entries, yet only 10 qualify as common by the site’s frequency measure. That gap matters: a plausible-looking match is not necessarily accepted in your game. Check your game's word list before playing an obscure entry, especially when dictionary editions differ.

For a quick solve, keep the fixed H and O in place, test S first, then use the ending to narrow the candidates. The 6-letter words with H as the 2nd letter and O as the 4th letter include easy anchors such as CHOOSE and THEORY, plus specialist choices such as SHMOCK.