7-letter words with A as the 3rd letter and O as the 6th letter

The fixed pattern is _ _ A _ _ O _, leaving four positions open for the first, second, fourth, and seventh letters. Station, shallow, and abandon are familiar anchors, but the dictionary totals barely overlap: Collins accepts 109 matches, compared with 90 in NWL2023 and 82 in ENABLE. Only 20 rank as common English words.

At a glance: counts, clues, and endings

• 110 entries meet the pattern _ _ A _ _ O _ across tournament dictionaries.
• Collins contains 109 matches, compared with 90 in NWL2023 and 82 in ENABLE.
• Twenty entries rank among the more common English words.
• Twenty-eight end in N, ahead of 23 ending in S and 16 ending in R.
• S begins 25 entries, while C begins 19.

Which pattern matches score highest in Scrabble?

The highest Scrabble total is sjambok at 22 points, followed by czardom at 21. Whackos and tzardom each score 19; soapbox, beatbox, and coalbox each make 18, and gearbox scores 17. The top end rewards unusual letter combinations, not just familiar vocabulary, so check both the point value and the word’s validity in your game.

Each of those high scorers fits _ _ A _ _ O _: gearbox is an easy bridge from a recognisable word to the score list, while sjambok and czardom are less everyday. For ordinary solving, try station, shallow, abandon, swallow, or tractor; their varied openings quickly test which early slots are fixed.

How do the surrounding letters narrow your choices?

For 7-letter words with A as the 3rd letter and O as the 6th letter, the first and last letters offer useful clues. S leads with 25 entries and C follows with 19; at the other end, N appears 28 times, S 23, and R 16. An N-ending candidate deserves an early check when your crossing letters agree.

Dictionary membership is the main limitation: Collins includes 109 matches, while NWL2023 includes 90 and ENABLE 82. The counts are not interchangeable, so check your game's word list before banking on an unfamiliar entry. Of the 110 matches, 91 have definitions here; the others lack a definition.

Lock the third-letter A and sixth-letter O before testing the open slots. Then use the common endings to sort candidates: station, abandon, and evasion finish in N, while shallow and swallow finish in W.