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

Few English words end in C, and the ones that do almost always use the -IC suffix. That gives this pattern a compact shape: a U in second place, a stem, and then IC. Only LUNATIC is common, so most of the 29 are technical terms.

The U-to-C list at a glance

• Collins lists all 29, while NWL2023 and ENABLE list 25 each.
• LUNATIC is the only common word.
• The average score is 13.5, and QUADRIC leads at 19 points.
• Q, B and A each open 4 words, and F opens 3.
• Every word ends in C, with -IC covering 24 of them.

Which -IC endings come up most?

-TIC leads with 8 words, including LUNATIC, QUARTIC, QUANTIC and QUINTIC. -RIC follows with 6, such as NUMERIC, QUADRIC and BUTYRIC, and -NIC has 4, including BUBONIC and PURANIC.

Together those three endings cover 18 of 29 words. The other six -IC words, among them NUCLEIC and JURIDIC, use rarer stems. Treat those as the last tier to check, after the three big endings.

Why do the Q words score so well?

QUADRIC scores 19, while QUANTIC, QUARTIC and QUINTIC each score 18, because the Q alone is worth 10. MUNTJAC, a kind of small deer, also reaches 18 on the strength of an 8-point J and a 3-point C. It is the only non-Q word among the top five.

JURIDIC follows at 17. All of these are valid in Collins, NWL2023 and ENABLE, so they carry no dictionary risk.

Which words fail in NWL2023?

Four fail: NUCLEIC, DULOTIC, CUMARIC and AUTOVAC. Collins accepts all four, and ENABLE accepts none.

That leaves 25 words that work in NWL2023, which is the cut North American players should use. FUTHORC and FUTHARC, two spellings of an old runic alphabet, are accepted in NWL2023 and are worth remembering.