7-letter words with N as the 2nd letter and R as the 5th letter

The fixed pattern is _N__R__, so the second slot must be N and the fifth must be R. The opening letters are unusually concentrated: U begins 52 matches, while I begins 36 and E begins 34. Only 21 entries fall among the most common English words, so the pattern mixes familiar forms with specialist vocabulary.

At a glance: the N-and-R pattern

• U is the leading first letter, with 52 of 142 matches; I and E follow at 36 and 34.
• Final S occurs 51 times, nearly twice as often as final D, which appears in 28 words.
• ENTERED and INJURED show two familiar routes into the pattern; both place R in slot five.
• ANTHRAX tops the score list at 17 points, ahead of INJURED at 15.

Which starts and endings dominate these words?

The starting-letter split does more than provide a shortcut: U, I, and E together account for 122 of the 142 matches. That leaves just 20 across A, O, S, G, and K. If the first letter is known, test those three dominant openings before spending guesses on the sparse tail.

The endings are similarly lopsided. S closes 51 words and D closes 28, while E appears 17 times; together, those three endings cover 96 matches. ENTERED and INJURED finish in D, whereas ENDORSE and ENSURES finish in E and S, respectively.

UNDERGO and ENFORCE offer another quick pattern check: each has N in the second position and R in the fifth. Their different endings show why the final letter can narrow a clue without identifying one answer.

What scores well, and where does the list differ?

Score hunters should start with ANTHRAX: its 17-point total leads the listed options, and its X makes it the standout. INJURED scores 15, while INJURES, UNHARDY, INJURER, INJERAS, UNPERCH, INWORKS, and UNWORKS each score 14. These are rack-and-board choices, not everyday vocabulary.

For 7-letter words with N second and R fifth, dictionary coverage is a practical limit: 104 matches have definitions, but just 21 are classed as common. Collins accepts 140 of these words, compared with 96 in NWL2023 and 90 in ENABLE. Check your game's word list before building a play around an obscure entry; the dictionaries do not share one universal set.