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

This is a small, lopsided frame. A final S closes most words, so the typical shape is ?U??S?S. Spot that closing S and the sixth letter becomes the next clue, since only a handful of endings repeat across the list.

Facts on the U-2nd, S-5th frame

• Dictionary split: Collins 69 words, NWL2023 57, ENABLE 45.
• 50 of the 76 end in S, about two in three.
• Only 2 are everyday words: GUESSED and GUESSES.
• QUETSCH scores 21, the highest on the list, with BUCKSAW and QUIESCE next at 18.
• The average Scrabble score is 11.1, and 7 words start with Q.

Which endings do most U-S words share?

The ending -SES covers 23 words, from GUESSES and QUASSES to HUMUSES and LUPUSES. The -STS ending is next with 14, and it is the easiest to recognise: PURISTS, JURISTS, NUDISTS, CUBISTS and AURISTS all follow the same plural-of-an-IST pattern.

Another seven end in -SMS, such as CUBISMS, PURISMS and AUTISMS. Those three endings together account for 44 of the 76 words. The remaining 32 are scattered singles such as FUCHSIA, CURTSEY and MUCOSAL, so no second pattern competes.

Are there everyday words here besides GUESSED?

Barely. GUESSED and GUESSES are the only two words in the common-English range, so the frame rewards vocabulary more than instinct. GUESSER, FUCHSIA and CURTSEY are real words you may know, though none is frequent enough to count as common.

Collins carries the strangest entries. 19 of the 76 are missing from NWL2023, QUETSCH, QUIESCE and BUCKSOM among them, so a North American game may reject them.

Playing the Q words