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

Most of this list is UN- attached to a verb that begins with P: UNPACKS, UNPICKS, UNPLUGS and UNPAIRS. The exceptions are the UMP words, led by UMPIRES and UMPTEEN, plus a few oddities such as ULPANIM and UPPINGS. Plurals and past tenses fill out the endings.

The 34 words at a glance

• Dictionary spread: 32 in Collins, 19 in NWL2023 and 17 in ENABLE.
• Only UMPIRES ranks among the top 25,000 English words.
• Best scores: UNPACKS and UNPICKS at 15, then UNPERCH at 14.
• Endings: S closes 12 words, D closes 9, and E and T close 3 each.
• Average score: 11.3 points.

Which UNP stems come up most?

UNPA is the biggest with nine: UNPACED, UNPACKS, UNPAGED, UNPAINT, UNPAIRS, UNPANEL, UNPAPER, UNPARED and UNPAVED. UNPL has five, including UNPLACE, UNPLUGS and UNPLUME, and UNPI has four: UNPICKS, UNPILES, UNPILED and UNPINKT.

Three words open UNPO, namely UNPOPED, UNPOPES and UNPOSED. UNPRAYS and UNPROPS make up the UNPR pair, while UNPURSE and UNPERCH stand alone. That accounts for 25 of the 34.

What are the words that do not start with UNP?

Four begin UMP: UMPIRES, UMPIRED, UMPTEEN and UMPTIER. Four more start UPP, namely UPPILED, UPPILES, UPPINGS and UPPROPS, and ULPANIM is the last one standing.

UMPIRES is the only everyday entry, and the only word on this page in the top 25,000 English words.

Which words are worth playing?

UNPACKS and UNPICKS both reach 15 because the K is worth 5 and the C 3. UNPERCH takes 14 with an H, and UNPAVED, UNPLUMB and UPPROPS each get 13.

Laying down a full rack of seven collects the 50-point Scrabble bingo bonus, which dwarfs those differences. The catch is the dictionary split: Collins covers 32 of the 34, NWL2023 covers 19 and ENABLE covers only 17, so many of these are tournament-only.