7-letter words with M as the 1st letter and O as the 4th letter

With M first and O fourth, the middle often forms an -OR- or -ON- chain, and the endings pile up on S. More than a third of the list closes with that letter, so a plural clue takes you most of the way. The remaining words fall into a handful of tidy suffix families, which this page sorts out below.

The M__O frame at a glance

• 84 words fit, and only 7 are common English.
• S ends 30, C ends 13, and D ends 7.
• Second letter O opens 23 words, E opens 22 and A opens 19.
• MYXOMAS scores 21, with MAJORLY and MADOQUA on 19.
• The 6-letter frame has 54 words and the 5-letter one has 37.

Which word families show up most?

Watch for -SIS and -NIC. The first pairs MITOSIS with meiosis; the second pairs MASONIC with moronic. A third family is -ORED, with majored, minored and motored, all verbs that take a plain past-tense ending.

Place names and loans add colour, such as MOROCCO, madonna and minorca. Menorah, mimosas and monocle round out the everyday words, and none needs a rare tile.

How much does an S ending help?

Plenty. Thirty of 84 is 36 percent of the entire pattern, so a plural clue covers over a third of the list: memoirs, maroons, mimosas and myxomas all fit it.

C is the next best bet with 13 words such as melodic and mitotic, both of which end in -TIC or -DIC. D follows at 7, then A at 6, so those three letters together reach 26. After that the endings thin out to four words or fewer, and a final E or N is a long shot.

Scrabble and dictionary note