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

Two Us with a single letter between them are rare in English, and this pattern proves it. The whole list fits in a paragraph, and it splits into small families: four words ending in -ULA, two in -ULE, and three S plurals. That makes it easy to learn in full.

All 14 words at a glance

• Count: 14 words. Collins takes 13, NWL2023 takes 9 and ENABLE takes 8.
• Everyday words: BOUQUET, COUTURE and UNUSUAL, the only three in the top 25,000.
• Endings: A closes 4 words, E closes 4 and S closes 3.
• Best score: BOUQUET at 18 points, ten of them from the Q. KRUBUTS follows at 13.
• Average word: 10.5 points.

Which of these words come in pairs and families?

PLUMULA and PLUMULE differ by one letter, and so do FAUNULA and FAUNULE. Add ARUGULA and NEURULA and you have the whole -ULA group of four, plus the two -ULE twins. That is six words learned from two spellings.

COUPURE and COUTURE share a C-O-U frame and an -URE ending. KRUBUTS, MUUMUUS and SPUTUMS are the plurals. BOUQUET, UNUSUAL and COUGUAR stand alone.

Every one of the 14 needs two Us, so a rack with a single U and no blank can never play any of them.

Can you actually build these in Scrabble?

Watch the U count. A standard English Scrabble set holds only 4 U tiles, and MUUMUUS uses four of them, so you need a blank or the whole supply. BOUQUET asks for two.

If you do land BOUQUET with all seven tiles, the 18 points are followed by the 50-point bingo bonus. That is a strong turn from a pattern with so few entries.

Checking a rack against this list takes seconds. Look for the two Us first, then for the Q, M or L that picks the word.

Why this list may not work in your game