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

A second U in sixth place squeezes the last letter into a narrow set: mostly S and M, then P and a handful of one-offs. -OUS alone supplies 15 words, and ROUNDUP, BRUSHUP and TOUCHUP form a small -UP trio. Start from the final two letters and the list shrinks quickly.

Facts about words with U third and U sixth

• Size: 51 words. Collins has 48, NWL2023 has 38 and ENABLE has 33.
• Everyday words: just 4, namely ROUNDUP, AQUEOUS, SHUTOUT and SOULFUL.
• Last letters: S ends 25 words, M ends 10 and P ends 3.
• Best plays: MZUNGUS and EXUVIUM at 19, then BRUSQUE and VAUDOUX at 18.
• A word here scores 11.4 points on average.

Which two-letter endings cover most of the 51?

-US and -UM together give 35 words, about seven in ten. The -OUS group is the largest tail with 15, including AQUEOUS, RAUCOUS, EMULOUS and SPUMOUS.

-IUM adds 4 (THULIUM, ELUVIUM, EXUVIUM and ALUMIUM) and -GUM adds 3 (BLUEGUM, SLUMGUM and SOURGUM). FRUSTUM and PLUMBUM sit in the M group too. The opening letter spreads widely: S starts 7 words, P starts 6, and B and A start 5 each.

The odd shapes outside US and UM

ROUNDUP, BRUSHUP and TOUCHUP end in P. SOULFUL and POUTFUL end in L, DOUCEUR and HAUTEUR in R, and SHUTOUT and HAULOUT in T.

BRUSQUE and POURSUE are the pair ending in E, and FLUBDUB is the lone B word. Those twelve words are easy to miss if you only think in plurals and Latin-style endings. Each of these odd tails is worth learning, because a plural-only guess misses all twelve.

A scoring and dictionary warning