7-letter words with W as the 1st letter and T as the 3rd letter

Three openings carry almost the whole list: WIT- starts 21 words, WAT- starts 12 and WET- starts 11. Inside them, two spelling clusters repeat. Eight words contain TCH, as in WATCHED and WITCHES, and 18 double the T, as in WETTING and WITTIER.

The W-and-T pattern at a glance

• All 49 are in Collins, 41 are in NWL2023 and 38 are in ENABLE.
• Seven are everyday words: WITHOUT, WATCHED, WITNESS, WATCHES, WITCHES, WATERED and WETLAND.
• S closes 18 words, T closes 6, and D and G close 5 each.
• WATCHED and WITCHED lead the scores on 16, ahead of WATCHES, WITCHES and WATCHER on 15.
• Average score: 12.2 points.

Which words contain TCH?

Eight: WATCHED, WATCHER, WATCHES, WATCHET, WITCHED, WITCHEN, WITCHES and WOTCHER. The 3-point C and two 4-point tiles (W and H) push them to 15 or 16.

Eight others have T and H side by side: WETHERS, WITHERS, WITHIER, WITHIES, WITHING, WITHINS, WITHOUT and WUTHERS.

By opening, WIT- is biggest with 21 words, WAT- has 12 and WET- has 11. WOT- has 4 (WOTCHER, WOTTEST, WOTTETH and WOTTING), and WUTHERS stands alone.

How many of them double the T?

Eighteen have TT in third and fourth place, including WETTING, WETTEST, WITTIER, WITTILY, WITTING and WATTLES. WOTTEST and WOTTING come from the old verb WOT. WATTAGE and WATTLED are the other TT words that open with WAT-.

The common endings for those 18 are -ING, -ERS and -EST, which together with -ESS give the tail families of the whole list.

Four tails repeat. -ING closes WETTING, WITHING, WITLING, WITTING and WOTTING, and -ERS closes WETHERS, WETTERS, WITHERS, WITTERS and WUTHERS. -EST closes WATTEST, WETTEST and WOTTEST, and -ESS closes WETNESS, WITLESS and WITNESS.

Where the list gets obscure