Words With UAR in the Middle
100 wordsThe UAR pattern marks a distinctive corner of English vocabulary where Latin, French, and Germanic roots converge. These words often carry formal or technical weight—think guardians, quartets, and actuarial tables. You'll find 187 words here, from the humble four-letter GUAR to specialized geological terms.
5-letter words
46-letter words
57-letter words
118-letter words
159-letter words
2510-letter words
1511-letter words
1412-letter words
813-letter words
114-letter words
115-letter words
1Pattern Guide
Insights and recommendations for these words.
UAR words reward players who think beyond the obvious. The pattern's Q-heavy vocabulary creates scoring opportunities that most opponents won't anticipate.
Vocabulary & Language
Linguistic patterns and usage statistics
UAR frequently appears in words derived from Latin 'quattuor' (four), giving us QUARTER, QUART, and QUARTIC. The pattern also shows up in guardian-related words, tracing back through French to Frankish roots meaning 'to watch.' This dual heritage—mathematical precision from Latin, protection from Germanic—explains why UAR words often feel either technical or noble.
Total Words
187
0.1% of dictionary
Avg Length
9.2 letters
3.0 syllables
Top Scrabble
QUARTZIFEROUS
34 points
Longest Word
QUARRELSOMENESS
15 letters
Parts of Speech
At 79% nouns, this pattern skews heavily toward naming things rather than describing them. The average length of 9.2 letters reflects how UAR tends to anchor longer, compound formations rather than simple words.
Middle English and Latin dominate here, often working together in layered borrowings. GUARD traveled from Frankish through Old French into Middle English, picking up the 'gu-' spelling along the way. SQUARE followed a similar path, starting from Vulgar Latin's 'exquadra' before French reshaped it. These etymology chains reveal how Norman French served as a bridge between Latin learning and everyday English.
Word Games
High-value words for board games
Short (2-4)
drought-tolerant herb grown for forage and for its seed which yield a gum used as a thickening agent or sizing material
Long (8+)
(football) the person who plays quarterback
Short (2-4)
drought-tolerant herb grown for forage and for its seed which yield a gum used as a thickening agent or sizing material
Medium (5-7)
colorless glass made of almost pure silica
an algebraic equation or function of the fourth degree
a quark with an electric charge of -1/3 and a mass 988 times that of an electron and a strangeness of -1
Long (8+)
French inventor of the Jacquard loom that could automatically weave complicated patterns (1752-1834)
QUARTZ anchors both games as the go-to UAR scorer, but the real strategy lies in the Q without U alternatives. SQUARK plays in both formats and scores 19 in Scrabble versus 20 in WWF—a modest bump that reflects WWF's Q revaluation at 10 points. For longer plays, QUARTZITIC reaches 30 points in Scrabble and 32 in WWF, while WWF players get exclusive access to JACQUARD at 31 points.
Wordle
5-letter words for daily puzzles
Good Starters (E, A, R, S, T)
QUART makes an excellent early guess, testing Q placement while covering common letters A, R, and T. TUART offers an alternative that avoids the tricky Q while still probing the UAR pattern and adding a useful vowel-consonant spread.
Length Extremes
Longest and shortest valid words
Longest
UAR resists short words because it typically forms the core of Latin-derived roots rather than standalone syllables. The pattern needs surrounding letters to complete meaningful morphemes, pushing the average above nine letters.
Hidden Gems
Rare but valid words to surprise opponents
someone versed in the collection and interpretation of numerical data (especially someone who uses statistics to calculate insurance premiums)
an expert or collector of antiquities
any receptacle for the burial of human bones
a coat of arms that occupies one quarter of an escutcheon; combining four coats of arms on one shield usually represented intermarriages
OSSUARY names a container for human bones, typically found in churches or cemeteries where remains are stored after exhumation. Beyond its macabre specificity, it's a valid Scrabble play that most opponents won't challenge. The word traces to Latin 'os' (bone), making it a cousin to 'ossify' and 'osteoporosis.'
Popular crossword answers
Words frequently used in crossword puzzles with common clues.