7-letter words with O as the 3rd letter and C as the 6th letter

With O in slot three and C in slot six, the pattern leaves five letters to solve. PROJECT, PRODUCT, PROTECT, and PRODUCE share a PRO opening; STOMACH and PHONICS offer quite different shapes. Of the 49 tournament-dictionary entries, just 7 rank among common English words by frequency.

7-letter words with O as 3rd and C as 6th

• The fixed pattern matches 49 entries found in at least one tournament dictionary.
• PROJECT, PRODUCT, PROTECT, and PRODUCE are familiar examples with a PRO start.
• S is the final letter for 20 matches; E, H, and T each finish 7.
• The common-word frequency cutoff includes only 7 of these entries.
• Dictionary counts are 48 in Collins, 37 in NWL2023, and 34 in ENABLE.

Which letters and endings narrow the choices?

Start with P when the first square is unknown: 10 matches begin with that letter. E starts 6 and B starts 5. The PRO group—PROJECT, PRODUCT, PROTECT, and PRODUCE—gives you four recognizable candidates to check against the remaining tiles.

An S ending accounts for 20 matches; E, H, and T tie at 7 each. When the last square is blank, test S before those tied options. The nearby pattern with E in the sixth position is much larger, at 837 matches.

EXOTICS and EXOTICA differ only in the final letter, so an S or an A there separates two otherwise identical 16-point plays.

What scores highest, and where does the list thin out?

ZLOTYCH tops the scoring list at 24 points. PROJECT follows at 18, then CROMACK at 17; EXOTICS, EXOTICA, and PHOBICS each reach 16. That makes ZLOTYCH the standout score, although PROJECT is the more familiar play.

The dictionary counts range from 34 in ENABLE to 48 in Collins, with NWL2023 at 37. All 49 entries occur in at least one tournament list, and 42 have definitions. Since only 7 meet the common-word frequency cutoff, verify an unfamiliar candidate against your game's dictionary before playing it.