7-letter words with U as the 3rd letter and T as the 4th letter

The UT pair opens a lot of doors: -ING alone accounts for 16 words, -ERS for 12, and 19 words double the T straight away, as in SHUTTER and CLUTTER. At the other end, Z and K tiles drive a few scores past 20, which gives the pattern a high-scoring side too.

What stands out about the UT pattern

• The list holds 147 words: 141 in Collins, 106 in NWL2023 and 97 in ENABLE.
• ROUTINE, NEUTRAL, CAUTION and SHUTTLE are among the 11 everyday entries.
• S is the last letter of 40 words, R of 21 and G of 17.
• CHUTZPA is the highest scorer at 23, with KLUTZES next on 20.
• The mean score comes to 10.1 points.

Which endings are most likely for _ _ U T _ _ _?

-ING leads with 16 words, among them ROUTING, FLUTING, POUTING and TOUTING. The -ERS group follows with 12, such as ROUTERS and NEUTERS, and -TER has 8, such as SHUTTER and CLUTTER.

Add those up and 36 of the 147 words sit in three tails. The remaining 111 are scattered, so if none of the three fits your pattern, work from the first three letters instead. SOU-, BRU-, SHU- and GLU- openings each give several candidates.

Do double-T words matter here?

Yes: 19 of the 147 have T in fifth place as well. SHUTTLE, SHUTTER, CLUTTER, FLUTTER and STUTTER are the everyday ones, and ABUTTED, GLUTTED and SMUTTED are past-tense forms.

Doubling the T also clears a rack of spare letters in one move. Only SHUTTLE, SHUTTER and CLUTTER are common words, so most of the 19 suit a dictionary check more than casual conversation.

Rare-letter plays with U and T in place