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

Four middles run this pattern: UGG, UNG, URG and UDG. They give you NUGGETS, DUNGEON, SURGERY and JUDGING in one sweep. Add the plural S and a strong -ING group, and the list sorts itself quickly, even though it holds 178 words.

What to know about ?U?G???

• Dictionary coverage: Collins 175, NWL2023 139, ENABLE 128.
• Thirteen words are common, including SUGGEST, SURGERY, SURGEON, JUDGING and BURGLAR.
• The average score is 11, and QUIGHTS tops it at 20.
• S ends 72 words, G ends 24 and R ends 22.
• B opens 42 words, while P and O open 15 each.

Which third letters should you test first?

The third slot is G in 53 words, N in 37, R in 34 and D in 19. UGG gives NUGGETS and HUGGING, UNG gives DUNGEON, PUNGENT and JUNGLES, URG gives SURGERY, BURGERS and BURGLAR, and UDG gives JUDGING and BUDGETS.

Those four letters cover 143 of the 178 words, about four in five. The remaining 35 words use T (16 words), L (12 words) and a handful of rarer letters in the third slot.

Which openings and endings repeat most?

OUTG- opens 15 words and BURG- opens 13, with MUGG-, PUGG- and BUNG- on 9, 8 and 8. OUTGROW and OUTGAZE belong to the first stem. B starts 42 words in all, almost a quarter.

-ING ends 24, -ERS ends 18, -IER ends 15, and -LES and -LED end 8 each. Words such as BULGING, SURGING and PURGING share the -ING frame.

How many words fail in NWL2023, and what scores best?

Thirty-nine of the 178 fail in NWL2023, including BUDGERO, MUDGERS, MUDGING and JUGGINS. QUIGHTS scores 20 but is Collins-only, and OUTGAZE makes 17 in NWL2023 and Collins but not ENABLE.

QUAGGAS makes 18, and JUDGING, JUGGING and JUGGLED make 17. All four pass in every list, so they are the safe high scorers. JUDGIER also scores 16 but only NWL2023 has it.