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

The suffix -ISH does nearly all the work on this page. It turns nouns into BULLISH, CULTISH and similar words, and it also closes the common PUBLISH and FURNISH. Every word ends in H, so the question is how many of the final three letters you can name.

The ?U????H list at a glance

• Dictionary reach: ENABLE 46, NWL2023 50, Collins 70.
• Four words are common: PUBLISH, RUBBISH, BULLISH and FURNISH.
• The mean score is 14.1, and HUTZPAH leads on 24.
• O opens 8 words, and M and B open 7 each.
• I is the fifth letter of 46 words.

How many of these words end in -ISH?

Forty-four, about three in five of the whole list. PUBLISH, RUBBISH, BULLISH, FURNISH, BURNISH, CULTISH, HUNNISH, PUCKISH and HUFFISH are typical, and the -FISH words PUPFISH and MUDFISH belong to the same group.

-SH as a whole covers 54 of the 71. The other 10 -SH words split into -ASH (OUTWASH, QUAMASH, 6 in all) and -USH (BULRUSH, 4 in all). Fixing -ISH alone settles 44 of the 71.

What are the -TH and other endings?

-TH ends 9 words, such as SUNBATH, OUTWITH and SUCCOTH, and -CH ends 3. Two end in -GH, among them CURRAGH, and three end in -AH, including HUTZPAH and KUFIYAH.

Those 17 words are the non-SH group. Treat them as exceptions: if the last letters are not SH, think TH first, since it has 9 words against 3 or fewer for each of the others.

Which words score best, and which are Collins only?

HUTZPAH scores 24 and is accepted everywhere. QUAMASH and QUETSCH make 21, and KUFIYAH makes 20. QUETSCH and KUFIYAH are Collins-only.

HUFFISH scores 19, and BUCKISH and PUCKISH make 18. MUFFISH also reaches 18 but only Collins has it. Twenty-one of the 71 fail in NWL2023, including GUARISH, LUBFISH, TUBBISH and TUBFISH.