7-letter words with M as the 2nd letter and G as the 4th letter

The fixed pattern is _m_g___, and its small set has a clear split: seven words begin with I, while five begin with S. IMAGINE, IMAGING, and IMAGERY make one recognizable cluster; SMUGGLE and its related forms make another. Four matches rank among the top 25,000 English words by frequency, so most entries are much less familiar.

The pattern at a glance

• All 14 matches have M in position two and G in position four.
• Seven begin with I, five with S, and one each with A and E.
• Five end in S; every other final letter occurs once or twice.
• AMYGDAL leads the listed Scrabble scores at 14 points.
• Four matches are common by the top-25,000 English-word frequency measure.

Why do most matches start with I or S?

I and S account for 12 of the 14 openings. The I group includes IMAGINE, IMAGING, IMAGERY, IMAGERS, IMAGIST, IMAGISM, and IMAGOES; the S group includes SMUGGLE, SMUGGER, SMUGGED, and SMIGHTS.

That concentration is a useful solving clue: once M and G are fixed, test I and S before spending guesses on the rarer A- or E-starting options. The endings narrow the field too: five words finish with S, while seven different final letters appear just once each.

How should you use the top-scoring matches?

AMYGDAL scores 14 points, ahead of IMAGERY and SMIGHTS at 13 each. Those scores reward unusual letters, but they do not make the words equally familiar: IMAGERY is easier to recognize than AMYGDAL, and only four matches meet the common-word frequency cutoff.

The 14-word total includes Collins entries; ENABLE and NWL2023 each include 11. This is a narrow pattern list, and obscure entries can be rejected by a game's chosen dictionary. Check that word list before building a play around one.