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

With -ING fixed in the last three places, the frame shrinks to a puzzle about stems: two free letters, then U, then one more. HOUS, CAUS, TOUR and POUR are the common ones. Only two words break the rule, and both are obscure.

Snapshot of the U-G final list

• Collins accepts all 116 words, NWL2023 accepts 74 and ENABLE accepts 70.
• Nine are common, led by HOUSING, CAUSING, TOURING and POURING, which all take plain verb stems.
• S opens 16 words, with P, T, B and D close behind on 9, 9, 8 and 8.
• Top scores: JAUKING and JOUKING 19, FLUXING 18, BRUXING 17.
• The average score is 10.9.

Which stems give 7-letter -ING words with U in third place?

The fourth letter shapes the stem. S leads with 18 words, among them ABUSING, AMUSING, CAUSING, HOUSING and ROUSING, and T follows with 16, including ROUTING, TOUTING and POUTING.

R and K each give 11 words. TOURING, POURING and SOURING sit in the R group, while FLUKING and JAUKING sit in the K group. Forty-four of the 114 have O as the second letter, the shape of HOUSING, TOURING and POURING.

Do any of the high scorers work in North American games?

Some do. JAUKING, JOUKING and FLUXING are accepted by ENABLE, NWL2023 and Collins, so their 19, 19 and 18 points travel anywhere. BRUXING at 17 is Collins and NWL2023 only.

The gap is large overall, since Collins accepts 42 more words than NWL2023. Treat the dictionary cutoff as the main risk in this frame, because the spelling is predictable and the stem is the only thing you need to get right.

When ING is not enough