7-letter words with U as the 3rd letter and T as the 6th letter

T in sixth place sits right before the last letter, which is why this short list falls into neat endings: -ATE, -ITE, -ETS, -NTS and -HTY. Learn those five tails and you can place most of the 66 words before you work out a single letter of the first half. The first three letters then do the rest.

The U-and-T pattern in numbers

• All 66 words appear in Collins; NWL2023 lists 47 of them and ENABLE 46.
• Just 5 are everyday words: EDUCATE, NAUGHTY, CRUELTY, EMULATE and REUNITE.
• S finishes 26 words, E finishes 23 and Y finishes 11.
• ZEUXITE leads the scoring on 23, then SQUATTY and SQUINTY on 19.
• Across the list a word averages 11.6 points.

Which endings should you try first?

-ATE gives 11 words, including EDUCATE, EMULATE, OVULATE and CAUDATE. -ITE gives 10: REUNITE, ERUDITE, BAUXITE and AZURITE. Those two cover 21 of the 66.

On the S side, -ETS has 8 (AMULETS, FAUCETS) and -NTS has 6 (SQUINTS, TRUANTS). The Y words end in -HTY, with NAUGHTY, HAUGHTY, DOUGHTY, FOUGHTY and PAUGHTY, or in -ITY, with PAUCITY, CRUDITY and RAUCITY.

Which of these words score the most?

ZEUXITE is worth 23, thanks to the 10-point Z and the 8-point X. SQUATTY and SQUINTY tie at 19, with HAUGHTY and FOUGHTY next on 17. AZURITE, BAUXITE and SQUIRTS all reach 16.

Most of these are rare. A player who wants a safe, common play should look at CRUELTY or NAUGHTY first, and treat the Z and Q words as a bonus when the rack allows. Seven tiles from your rack also earns the 50-point bingo bonus.

A warning on dictionary coverage