7-letter words with U as the 2nd letter and C as the 4th letter

Read the pattern as ?U?C??? and look at what sits before and after the C. An N before it and an H after it produce the NCH family, T before it gives UTC words such as BUTCHER and OUTCOME, and a second C gives SUCCESS and SUCCEED. Three habits, one long list.

Facts about the ?U?C??? words

• Collins counts 127 of the 134, NWL2023 counts 100 and ENABLE counts 88.
• Twelve words are common, including SUCCESS, QUICKLY, SUICIDE and MUSCLES.
• The average score is 13.5, high for a list this size.
• QUICKLY leads at 25 points, ahead of QUACKED on 23.
• N is the third letter of 34 words, T of 23 and C of 17.

Why is H the fifth letter of so many words?

H follows the C in 50 of 134 words, more than a third, since CH is a standard English pair. Twenty words end in -HES and twelve in -HED, which gives PUNCHES, BUNCHES, LUNCHES, PUNCHED, HUNCHED and BUNCHED.

BUTCHER and the -HER finish account for 8 more. If your rack holds H, E and S, the -NCHES and -TCHES endings are your first lines of attack.

What are the QUIC and SUCC families?

QUIC- opens 6 words, notably QUICKLY, QUICKER, QUICKEN and QUICKIE, and the four best known land between 22 and 25 points thanks to the 10-point Q and the 5-point K.

SUCC- opens 15, with SUCCESS, SUCCEED and SUCCUMB, and OUTC- opens 8, such as OUTCOME, OUTCAST and OUTCROP.

How many entries fail in NWL2023?

Thirty-four of the 134 words are missing from NWL2023, and QUACKER, QUACKLE, QUICHED, BUCCINA and SUCCOUS are among them. Seven NWL2023 words, going the other way, are missing from Collins.

QUICKLY, QUACKED, QUICKER, QUICKEN and QUICKIE are all accepted by Collins, NWL2023 and ENABLE, so the top-scoring family is safe to play anywhere.