6-letter words with U as the 1st letter and S as the 2nd letter

That fixed U-S opening leaves a compact set, not a broad word list. USEFUL and USABLE are recognizable options, while USQUES leads the score table despite being far less familiar. The entries also vary by dictionary: Collins includes all 16, while ENABLE and NWL2023 each include 11.

At a glance: the U-S six-letter set

• Sixteen tournament-dictionary words begin with U followed immediately by S.
• Only two entries meet the common-word cutoff; USEFUL and USABLE are recognizable examples.
• Seven words end in S, the most frequent final letter in this set.
• USQUES scores 15 points, ahead of USABLY at 11 and USWARD at 10.

Which U-S words are easiest to recognize?

USEFUL and USABLE stand out as familiar choices among these 16 words. Their endings make the difference easy to spot: USEFUL finishes with L, while USABLE ends in E. Both keep the required U-S start without relying on an unusual spelling.

The rest of the set is less everyday. USHERS and USAGES are recognizable too, but the score leader USQUES is a much rarer-looking play. Seven entries finish in S; that ending is common here, though the group also includes forms ending in D, E, R, L, N, and Y.

How does dictionary coverage affect these words?

For 6-letter words with U as the 1st letter and S as the 2nd letter, Collins has the fullest coverage: all 16 entries. ENABLE and NWL2023 each accept 11, so five entries in the combined set do not appear in either of those lists. Check your game's dictionary before playing an unfamiliar form.

USQUES, USABLY, and USWARD lead the score ranking, while USEFUL scores 9 and USHERS also scores 9. That is the counterintuitive trade-off in this pattern: the strongest raw score belongs to a much less familiar word, not one of the everyday choices. The average score is 8.1.