7-letter words with C as the 1st letter and U as the 6th letter

The pattern is C _ _ _ _ U _, with four open spaces between the fixed letters and one after U. Just 7 matches rank among the top 25,000 English words by frequency, so many entries are specialist vocabulary. For quick recall, start with careful or curious; both fit the pattern without needing an unusual spelling.

The pattern at a glance

• There are 89 seven-letter matches, with C first and U in position six.
• Only 7 rank among the top 25,000 English words by frequency.
• S is the most common final letter: 37 matches end in S, compared with 10 in M and 9 in T.
• Cazique scores 27 points, ahead of charqui at 21.

Which endings make these words easier to spot?

S endings lead by a wide margin, with familiar examples such as curious, callous, copious, and cumulus. If the last tile is S, test that ending first; it accounts for more than a third of the matches.

Other endings provide smaller but useful routes. Calcium and cadmium finish in M, while coconut and checkup end in T and P. Contour and centaur finish in R, so a fixed U in slot six does not force the word to end in a vowel or S.

How do these C-first, U-sixth words score?

For 7-letter words with C as the 1st letter and U as the 6th letter, Cazique is the standout score at 27 points; charqui scores 21, while checkup and cacique each score 20. Those high totals come from less familiar spellings, not from the everyday options.

The broad dictionary counts differ: Collins has 87 matches, NWL2023 has 72, and ENABLE has 64, against 89 distinct words overall. Only 7 are common by frequency, so treat the less familiar entries as game-list checks rather than words to assume every opponent will know. Careful and coconut are easier to recognize, but they score far below the unusual high scorers.