6-letter words with U as the 4th letter and S as the 6th letter

The pattern is _ _ _ U _ S, with two fixed tiles and four open positions. Familiar matches such as ISSUES, GROUPS, and VALUES sit beside rarer vocabulary. Just 17 of the 213 words fall in the common-word frequency band, so a valid fit is not always an obvious guess.

The pattern at a glance

• U occupies the fourth position, and S closes every match.
• The full pattern contains 213 words across the tournament dictionaries.
• S is the leading first letter, starting 45 matches.
• ZEBUBS tops the listed Scrabble scores at 19 points.

Which first letters show up most?

S makes the strongest opening group, with 45 matches; A follows at 16, then G at 14. Try the S-starting branch early if the first tile is unknown. SETUPS and SCRUBS both show that route while keeping U fourth and S at the end.

R begins 12 words, while B, C, D, and T each begin 11. GROUPS, CLOUDS, and SHOUTS demonstrate how varied the starts can be even with the same two locked positions. Once the opening tile is known, use the fourth and final letters to rule out near-misses.

How do scores and dictionary coverage compare?

The dictionary totals are uneven: Collins has 209 matches, NWL2023 has 156, and ENABLE has 146. Those groups overlap, so adding the counts would double-count words. Check the word list used by your game before trying an unfamiliar entry.

ZEBUBS scores 19 Scrabble points, followed by FIQUES at 18. MAQUIS, PIQUES, MIXUPS, COQUIS, and MAZUTS each score 17; DONUTS is a more familiar example but does not lead this scoring group. The high-value options often require vocabulary beyond everyday words.

The ending makes a striking difference: with U fourth, 213 matches end in S, while 170 end in E and 79 end in A. For a fixed final S, changing the fourth letter to E produces 907 matches, compared with 213 for U. This pattern is much narrower than the E-fourth alternative.