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

Two Us three places apart give this frame a rhythm. Many entries echo themselves, as in MURMURS and DUMDUMS, while the common words cluster around -URE, -OURS and -UMS. Spot which group your clue belongs to and the frame turns from 135 words into a dozen.

Counts and scores for the U-?-?-U frame

• Accepted by Collins (132 words), NWL2023 (109) and ENABLE (102).
• Common words total 11, among them CULTURE, PURSUIT, MUSEUMS and RUMOURS.
• -UMS ends 17 words, -URS 14, -UTS 10 and -URE 9.
• S ends 73 words and E ends 16.
• HUMBUZZ scores 32 and the average is 11.8.

Which words repeat their own syllables?

Several words here are doubled stems: DUMDUMS, MURMURS, BULBULS, HUMHUMS, KUMKUMS and DURDUMS. They are easy to build from a half you already know, since the second half simply repeats the first.

Most of the doubled words are rare. MURMURS is the exception and the only one you will meet in everyday reading, while DUMDUMS and BULBULS (a songbird) need a Scrabble-style vocabulary.

Are the British spellings valid?

Yes. RUMOURS, TUMOURS and HUMOURS are all accepted by Collins, NWL2023 and ENABLE, so you can play either spelling regardless of the dictionary.

The -URE words are safer still: CULTURE, NURTURE, RUPTURE and VULTURE are all common. PURSUIT, PURSUED and OUTPUTS finish the common list, with SUBDUED and MUSEUMS the last two.

What do the -UMS and -URS endings give you?

-UMS has 17 words and is led by MUSEUMS, with QUORUMS, CURIUMS and OUTSUMS as the other recognisable plurals. -URS has 14, including RUMOURS, TUMOURS, MURMURS and HUMOURS.

-UTS adds 10, with OUTPUTS, CUTOUTS, DUGOUTS and GUMNUTS among them. Together the three endings cover 41 of the 135 words, which is why a plural S is such a good first guess.

For points, HUMBUZZ makes 32 from two Z tiles but is valid in Collins only. JUMBUCK, an Australian word for a sheep, scores 24 and is accepted everywhere.