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

The pattern fixes two slots: A sits in position three, and O closes each word. That leaves five letters to identify, but only two of these 20 matches rank among the most common English words. Shampoo and placebo are easier to recognize than entries such as chanoyo or shakudo.

The pattern at a glance

• There are 20 tournament-dictionary words with A third and O seventh.
• Shampoo, placebo, and bravado are recognizable examples among the matches.
• Only 2 matches count as common English words in the frequency measure.
• The highest score belongs to aparejo, at 16 points.
• The final letter is O in every match; the starting letters vary.

Which matches are easiest to recognize?

Shampoo, placebo, and bravado are the familiar anchors in this pattern. They show how different the first two letters can be while A stays third and O stays last. Diabolo and guanaco are other examples, though they are less likely to come to mind during a quick puzzle.

The full set is broader than everyday vocabulary: 14 matches have definitions, while only 2 meet the common-word cutoff. Dictionary coverage also varies. Collins lists 19 matches, NWL2023 lists 10, and ENABLE lists 9; those totals overlap, so a word accepted in one list may not work in another.

Use the pattern to narrow a word-game play

For score-focused play, aparejo leads at 16 points; chanoyo and shakudo follow at 15 each. Shampoo and chamiso score 14. These rankings make the less familiar entries worth checking, but a high score is no substitute for confirming the word in your game’s dictionary.

The ending matters: A-third words ending in S number 741, compared with 20 ending in O. When a crossing hands you that last tile, one letter shrinks the whole list to a size you can read in full.