6-letter words with S as the 4th letter and O as the 5th letter

The pattern is _ _ _ S O _: the S and O are locked into the middle, leaving the first three letters and final letter to solve. PERSON, REASON, and PRISON are familiar examples. The group spans several starting letters, but its endings cluster heavily around N, a useful constraint when crossing out possibilities.

How many 6-letter words put S fourth and O fifth?

• Exactly 71 tournament-dictionary words match the _ _ _ S O _ pattern.
• Collins includes 68 matches, compared with 52 in NWL2023 and 47 in ENABLE.
• Only 14 entries rank among the top 25,000 English words by frequency.
• N is the final letter in 31 matches; S comes last in 18.

Which words fit the S-O middle pattern?

Start with the everyday anchors: PERSON, SEASON, REASON, PRISON, LESSON, and POISON all place S and O in the required positions. SENSOR and CENSOR fit too, but their shared ending makes them easy to overlook when you are testing a final R.

The first letter does not narrow the search to one obvious family. P and T each begin 9 matches, while C begins 7 and G begins 6. Try PERSON or POISON for P, then compare TENSOR and CENSOR: the middle pair stays fixed while the opening changes.

Which matches score well, and what is the catch?

Those are less familiar choices than SEASON, so check the board and your game’s word list before committing a high-value tile.

The average score is 8.3, but frequency is a separate question: just 14 words in the group are common by the stated frequency cutoff. Treat the 71 as a broad tournament-dictionary pool, not a promise that every entry appears in every game. Collins accepts more of these matches than NWL2023 or ENABLE.