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

U and E sit two letters apart, which creates a very flexible template: ?U?E???. The third letter is usually R, T or M, and the ending is usually S, E or L. Only five words are common, so most of what you play here comes from reading the cluster rather than from vocabulary.

Key facts on the ?U?E??? words

• Dictionary coverage thins out from Collins at 135 to NWL2023 at 100 and ENABLE at 91.
• The five common words are FUNERAL, QUIETLY, MUSEUMS, PUBERTY and QUIETER.
• A typical word is worth 11.6 points, and JUKEBOX leads at 27.
• S closes 45 words, E closes 26, L closes 12 and Y closes 11.
• Q starts 16 words and M starts 12, while L and A start 11 each.

Which third letters lead to the most words?

R is the third letter of 19 words, T of 16, M of 14, and B and D of 12 each. R gives BUREAUS, BURETTE and CURETTE, M gives NUMERAL, HUMERAL and HUMERUS, and B gives PUBERTY.

The -TTE finish covers 9 words in all, among them LUNETTE and MUSETTE, while -RAL covers 5 and -ES covers 11.

What are the QUEE and QUIE words?

QUEE- opens 8 words and QUIE- opens 6. QUIETLY and QUIETER are the common ones, with QUIETED and QUIETEN beside them, while QUEENLY, QUEERLY and QUEERED share the QUEE- stem.

QUIETLY, QUEENLY and QUEERLY each score 19. All three are valid in Collins, NWL2023 and ENABLE, so they work at any table.

Which words are risky outside Collins?

NWL2023 rejects 39 of the 139. QUEECHY, QUIESCE, QUAERED, MUDEJAR and TUBEFUL are on that list. QUEECHY scores 24 and QUIESCE 18, yet neither is playable in North America.

JUKEBOX, at 27, is safe in Collins, NWL2023 and ENABLE alike.