Words that end in U

What is in this list

This list holds 173 words, 0.1% of the 172,634 words this site keeps from the ENABLE word list. They run from 2 to 12 letters, and the most common length is 7 letters with 42 words (24.3% of the list). The shortest are MU, NU and XU; the longest is EISTEDDFODAU. Of the 12 lists in this group it is the 8th largest: “words that end in ED” leads with 13,318 and “words that end in J” has the fewest, 7.

Points and vowels

Using this site's letter values, the average word here scores 11.6 points (median 10); words of the same lengths across the whole list average 10.6, so this list runs 1 points richer. The top scorers are JIUJUTSU (29), JIUJITSU (28), JUJUTSU (28), JUJITSU (27). Point for point, JUJU earns the most per letter: 24 points over 4 letters, 6 each. U itself is worth 2 points here, so the score comes from the other letters.

Vowels (A, E, I, O, U) make up 53.2% of the letters, against 38% across the whole list. 76 words are more than half vowels. Compared with the whole dictionary, the letter most over-represented here is A: 12.8% of the letters, against 7.6% overall.

How the words are built

The letter just before the final U is most often A (27.2% of words), followed by O (16.2%). 15 words have a doubled letter (8.7%); the most common doubles are SS (3), DD (2), NN (2). The most common three-letter openings are BAT- (3, as in BATEAU), JUJ- (3, as in JUJITSU), MAN- (3, as in MANITOU).

Word play in this list

The biggest anagram family here is MANITOU and TINAMOU — 2 words from the same 7 letters. Altogether 1 set of anagrams sits inside this list, covering 2 words. It contains 1 palindrome, read the same both ways: ULU. 1 word turns into another real word when spelled backwards — SULU becomes ULUS. The longest word with no letter repeated is KABELJOU (8 different letters). JUJUTSU is the longest word here that uses only one kind of vowel, ahead of GRUGRU.

80.9% of these words take an S on the end and stay a word (ABOIDEAU, ABOITEAU and ACAJOU among them); after S, the most useful end letter is X, which extends 35 words. At the front, A turns one word into a new one (MU → AMU); B turns one word into a new one (EAU → BEAU); E turns one word into a new one (MU → EMU).

Using this list

To narrow it further, open it in the pattern finder: the rule “ends in U” is already filled in, and you can add a length, a fixed letter position or letters to leave out.