7-letter words with U as the 2nd letter and N as the 5th letter

The _ U _ _ N _ _ frame is thin on everyday words. Only MUTANTS and RULINGS rank among the top 25,000 English words, so most plays come from plural endings and a few specialist families. Learn the -NGS and -NES tails first, because they cover nearly two fifths of everything.

Facts on the U-N frame

• S closes 41 words, A closes 7 and L closes 6.
• L opens 10 words, B, M and P open 8 each, and Q opens 7.
• QUEENLY and QUEYNIE score 19, with JUVENAL, QUEENED and QUOINED at 17.
• Collins has 78 of the 79, NWL2023 has 55 and ENABLE has 51.

Which plurals fill the S-ending group?

-NGS is the largest tail at 19 words. RULINGS, OUTINGS, MUSINGS, TUNINGS, TUBINGS and BUSINGS are the ones you might reasonably build from a rack, and DUGONGS rounds out the group with a different vowel.

-NES is next with 12 words, many of them chemical names: PURINES, BUTANES, CUBANES, LUPINES and FURANES, plus SUPINES and MUTINES. Together the two tails cover 31 of the 79.

What are the Q words in this frame?

Seven words open with Q, and four of them are variants of QUEEN: QUEENED, QUEENLY, QUEENIE and QUEYNIE. QUANNET, QUINNAT and QUOINED make up the rest, and all seven keep U second and N fifth.

QUEENLY is the high scorer at 19 and plays everywhere. QUEYNIE also makes 19 but is Collins-only, as is QUEENIE, so lean on QUEENLY when the list is uncertain.

Without a Q, scores sink fast. JUVENAL at 17 is the best non-Q play, and LUMINAL, HUMANLY and EUGENIA all score below it, so JUVENAL is the one to remember.

Everyday finds