7-letter words with U as the 1st letter and A as the 3rd letter

Two prefixes carry this pattern: UNA- supplies 19 words and URA- supplies 14 more, from URANIUM to URACILS. The remaining six are loners: UJAMAAS, UPALONG, UDALLER, USANCES, USAUNCE and USAGERS. With only 39 words in total, the whole list is short enough to learn by heart before a tournament round.

The U_A pattern at a glance

• Dictionary split: Collins 38, NWL2023 30, ENABLE 26.
• UJAMAAS tops the scores at 16 points, then UNAWAKE at 14.
• Only 3 words are common in everyday English: UNAWARE, UNARMED and URANIUM.
• E ends 10 words and S ends 9, so those two finishes cover nearly half the list.

Which prefixes start these words?

UNA- is the larger family with 19 words. Seven of them end in -ED: UNACTED, UNAIDED, UNAIMED, UNAIRED, UNARMED, UNASKED and UNADDED. Adjectives dominate, so UNAWARE, UNALIKE and UNAGILE fit the same mould.

URA- gives 14 words, mostly science terms: URANIUM, URANIDE, URANYLS and URACILS. URAEMIA and URAEMIC, the two medical spellings, are easy to mix up with the American UREMIA, which is a different seven-letter pattern.

Anything that starts with U and has A third but not N or R second falls into the loner group. If your rack gives you U, A and an S in second place, think USANCES or USAGERS first.

What are the highest-scoring words with U first and A third?

UJAMAAS leads with 16 points, because the J is worth 8. UNAWAKE follows at 14 with its W and K, and four words tie at 12: UNASKED, UNAPTLY, UNAKING and URACHUS.

The average across all 39 is 9.5, so most plays here are modest. Pick UNAWAKE or UNASKED when the board lets you use a W or K.

Which of these words are safe to play?