5 Letter Words Ends with U

Letters in the open positions

Looking at the fourth letter, “A” (23, 15.4%), “O” (17, 11.4%), “T” (13, 8.7%), “D” (12, 8.1%) appear most often. This measures the character immediately before the final letter, rather than the word's first internal letter. Percentages use all 149 matching words as the denominator.

A final U is rare in English, so these words are mostly borrowed: BAYOU, HAIKU, ADIEU, OTAKU and BIJOU are all loanwords. This page gathers the most useful examples and explains the spelling patterns behind them, so you can narrow down a puzzle quickly.

Spelling Patterns You Will See

A handful of endings do most of the work. The OU ending gives BAYOU and BIJOU; the EU ending gives ADIEU; the KU ending gives HAIKU and OTAKU; the ZU ending gives KUDZU. Learning them lets you jump from the last letter to a short list of likely words.

Useful five-letter words

Start with BAYOU, HAIKU, ADIEU, OTAKU and BIJOU. Each one is common enough to appear in everyday writing, which makes it a safe test. KUDZU, WAGYU and SNAFU are worth keeping in reserve.

• BAYOU
• HAIKU
• ADIEU
• OTAKU
• BIJOU

How to Narrow Down Words Ending in U

Because so few words end in U, a green U in the last box narrows the list quickly. Many of these words come from French or Japanese, so keep spellings like OU, EU and KU in mind. With the ending settled, the first two boxes are where the remaining choices are made.

U in Scrabble and Other Word Games

In Scrabble, U is worth one point, so it is easy to play but adds little to a score on its own. Many players keep a few U words in mind, such as BAYOU, HAIKU and ADIEU, so they can use the tile quickly when it arrives.

Common starting letters in words ending in U

The most frequent starting letter is B, appearing in 16 words (10.7%). This shows how the words sharing the U ending are distributed across different beginnings.