7-letter words with R as the 1st letter and G as the 5th letter

With R first and G fifth, the fourth and sixth letters both stay open, and the language fills them in a few repeating ways. One quirk dominates: the REBEG- trio runs through three different vowels, and the REFUG- family supplies four words on its own.

The R___G frame in brief

• 33 words fit, and only 3 are common English.
• 24 have a definition, and the average score is 9.7.
• E is the second letter in 23 words; A follows with 5.
• S closes 11 words, D closes 6, and E, N and T close 4 each.
• REFIGHT scores 14, while RAVAGED and REFUGED score 12.
• The 6-letter frame with the same letters has 18 words.

Which word families repeat?

REFUG- supplies REFUGEE, refuges, refuged and refugia. REBEG- supplies rebegan, rebegin and rebegun, which differ only in the sixth-place vowel. RENEG- supplies RENEGED, reneges, reneger and renegue.

The RAVAG- group, RAVAGED, ravages and ravager, adds three more. Together that is 14 words from four stems, more than a third of the list and the fastest route through it.

Which entries stand alone?

A few words belong to no family. RINGGIT is the Malaysian currency and the only word here with a double G. RONTGEN is a unit of radiation dose and realgar is a red arsenic mineral.

Relight and refight are plain re- verbs. RESIGNS and repugns show the -GNS shape, with the G and N side by side. All four of ringgit, rontgen, realgar and refight appear in Collins, NWL2023 and ENABLE alike.

Plain English is thin here. Only 3 of the 33 rank among common words, so a solver should expect unusual vocabulary and fall back on the families above.

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