6-letter words with P as the 2nd letter and U as the 3rd letter

The pattern is _PU___, but the 21 matches are not evenly spread across starting letters: 17 begin with S, while E and O contribute two each. SPUNKY is the standout familiar-looking play; many of its companions are specialist entries rather than everyday vocabulary. Collins accepts all 21, whereas ENABLE and NWL2023 each accept 11, so your game's lexicon changes the usable set.

At a glance: the P-U pattern

• All 21 matches fit the six-letter pattern _PU___.
• SPUNKY is the top scorer at 15 points; SPUDDY and SPUGGY each score 13.
• Seventeen words start with S; only two each start with E or O.
• Nine entries end in S, five in E, and four in Y.
• Twelve matches have definitions, but none are common by our frequency cutoff.

6-letter words with P as the 2nd letter and U as the 3rd letter

That total is unusually small beside nearby patterns: changing the second letter to O gives 309 matches, while changing it to A gives 195. Keeping P in second place and changing U to I yields 66, and A yields 62. Those comparisons make the narrow P-U pairing clear; shifting one fixed tile can multiply the candidate pool.

Dictionary coverage is the bigger practical split. Collins lists all 21, but ENABLE and NWL2023 include 11 apiece. A candidate missing from your game's list is not playable there, so verify the active dictionary before building a move around a rare form.

Which matching words score highest?

SPUNKY leads with 15 Scrabble points, ahead of SPUDDY and SPUGGY at 13 each. SPURRY, SPUMED, and SPULYE score 11; Sputum and SPUMES score 10. On an ordinary board, the unusual letters in SPUNKY give the best raw total, but a premium square can change that ranking.

Use the visible endings to narrow a rack clue: nine matches finish in S, five in E, and four in Y. For 6-letter words with P as the 2nd letter and U as the 3rd letter, start with S when the first tile is known; then test the tail against the game dictionary. The remaining matches end in D, G, or M.