7-letter words with U as the 3rd letter and G as the 5th letter

Look at the letter just before the G. N gives 25 words, D gives 26 and a second G gives 23, which accounts for 74 of the 89 on its own. Add the E that follows in most of them, and the frame becomes a three-way choice.

U-G fifth frame in brief

• Collins lists 84 of these words, NWL2023 lists 60 and ENABLE lists 48.
• Everyday vocabulary is thin: YOUNGER, PLUGGED, PLUNGED, DRUGGED and SMUGGLE are the 5 in the top 25,000.
• S opens 26 words, far ahead of B, G (8 each) and D (7).
• The leaders on points are MZUNGUS 19, KLUDGEY 16, CHUGGED 15 and CHUGGER 14.
• The average score is 10.8.

Which letter sits before the G in these 7-letter words?

D leads by a hair. The -DG- words include SMUDGED, TRUDGED, GRUDGES and SLUDGES, and the -NG- words include PLUNGED, LOUNGES, YOUNGER and GRUNGES.

Doubled G is the third family: PLUGGED, SLUGGER, SNUGGLE and SMUGGLE. L and R give a handful more, such as SPURGES and EMULGES, and that leaves only the stragglers like SLUMGUM and BLUEGUM.

Which endings should you try first?

-GED has 27 words, -GES has 22 and -GER has 16. Those three tails cover 65 of the 89, so a final E followed by D, S or R is the best opening guess. Many of them are past tenses or plurals.

Rarer finishes include -GIE (DRUGGIE, BOURGIE) and -GUM (BLUEGUM, SLUMGUM), plus the -GLY pair SNUGGLY and YOUNGLY. Each of these tails has three or four words at most, so they are last-resort checks.

Which high scorers travel between dictionaries?