U and O are both uncommon vowels, and it is rare to see the two appear in a word together. My immediate thought was that the answer might have been extrinsic or extrinsic, and I flipped the coin on which I was going to guess. Not quite right, but on the court (which, as a Mets fan, has been a frustrating place this year). I had thought of words like ROUTE, but since I knew U had to be in second place, that certainly couldn’t be the case. QUOTE seemed a bit out of place with the Q, but all the other letters seemed to line up in the right place, so it was worth a try.

Source: New York Times September 10, 2023 15:06 UTC