Two Letter Words
Personally, I enjoy playing Scrabble – it is an excellent game. There is a slight problem with it though – it manages to straddle the gulf between language, which is highly flexible, ever changing and more than a little subjective, and competition, which leads people to seek to optimise heavily, bending into unrecognisability any rules that are not laid down in cast iron.
This split personality leads to conflicts, the most obvious one being which dictionary to use. This particular conflict has been neatly resolved in the English language by everyone agreeing to use “Collins Scrabble Words” (CSW, previously known as SOWPODS). Oh wait, that isn’t the case at all – the US, Canada and Thailand use the “Tournament Word List (TWL, derived from Merriam-Webster). Be that as it may, I am going to talk about CSW/SOWPODS here, because I am in the UK.
The Scrabble conflict I am most familiar with is the one that arises between serious players and occasional players. By serious, I don’t mean people that compete at an international level or anything like that; I just mean people that are competitive – the aforementioned optimisers. It is possible to deduce fairly quickly that knowing all permissible 2-letter words gives you a huge advantage over anyone that doesn’t – being able to play words parallel rather than perpendicular to those already on the board increases the availability of high scoring plays enormously. For example, if DERAILED is already on the board, we can play the hand ABEGKDR in a couple of very different ways. Before any bonuses are taken into account, playing letters parallel to the existing word already scores more than double playing them perpendicular:
This means that anyone looking for an edge in the competition is very likely to seek out a list of all permissable 2-letter words, and learn them. House rules aside, the default ruleset is to use the official Scrabble competition dictionariy. In TWL there are 107, and in SOWPODS there were 124 until 3 more were added in 2019, bringing the total to 127. A list of 127 words is fairly manageable to learn, but the real problem comes when trying to actually use them in a game. An “occasional player” may agree to use the default official dictionary, as this sounds like a reasonable thing to do, but when you, for example, make the following play:
With the Z on a triple letter score, netting you 72 points in a single turn… People are going to ask you what “gu” and “za” mean.
Of course, neither is in the dictionary you have to hand, so you check online, assuring everyone that they are totally valid words in competition Scrabble. Of course, any SOWPODS lookup website will tell you that both are perfectly valid words, but most of these will not give you the definition. You then go on an ordinary dictionary website, which informs you that GU is an abbreviation for both genitourinary and Guam, while ‘za is a slang abbreviation for pizza. You feel the mood of the table turning against you, as people start grumbling that abbreviations are explicitly forbidden in the rules of Scrabble, and whilst slang that is widespread and has been around for a long time might make it into the dictionary, ‘za definitely seems to be reaching a bit.
Undeterred, you find a SOWPODS website that seems to include definitions, and you look up the two words. Disaster strikes – you get the same definitions again! Much “lively discussion” ensues, and perhaps people settle down and agree not to worry, as such a high score was a bit of a fluke anyway. The trouble is, it wasn’t a fluke, so the next time you make a high scoring play that relies on the two letter word FE, it comes to a head yet again. You look it up, and the online dictionary says that it is the chemical symbol for iron – not a valid definition for Scrabble purposes. This is the last straw, and everyone revolts – no more SOWPODS words! They’re not proper words, it gives you an unfair advantage, and it’s a silly name for a dictionary anyway – let’s all agree to be reasonable and use the OED from now on. Memorising the 2-letter words was a waste, and everyone now thinks you’re basically a cheat.
Well, it doesn’t have to be this way. All of the 2-letter words in SOWPODS are indeed actual words that have definitions that are not abbreviations. All of these definitions are also possible to find online if you look hard enough, but unfortunately they’re not in the first places you look. These definitions fall into what I consider to be 5 broad categories, each of which contains around 20 words. In an effort to make both the words and their meanings easier to memorise, I shall run through the 2-letter words by category:
Interjections (24)
A class of words like nouns or verbs, except that these are simply noises that express emotion.
| Word | Definition | Recent Addition? | In TWL? |
|---|---|---|---|
| AH | Expressing surprise | ||
| AW | Expressing affection or disappointment | ||
| BO | Exclamation to inspire surprise | ||
| EH | Expressing confusion | ||
| ER | Expressing uncertainty | ||
| EW | Expressing disgust | 2019 | |
| FY | Expressing contempt | No | |
| HA | Expressing amusement | ||
| HI | Greeting | ||
| HM | Expressing being in thought | ||
| HO | Expressing amusement | ||
| IO | Expressing triumph | No | |
| LO | Directing attention to some subject of interest | ||
| MM | Expressing satisfaction | ||
| OH | Expressing surprise | ||
| OI | Requesting attention | ||
| OW | Expressing being in pain | ||
| OY | Requesting attention | ||
| SH | Requesting silence | ||
| ST | Expressing displeasure | No | |
| UH | Expressing confusion | ||
| UM | Expressing uncertainty | ||
| UR | Expressing uncertainty | No | |
| YO | Greeting |
Letters (22)
Every letter has a name, and that name is a perfectly valid noun.
| Word | Definition | Recent Addition? | In TWL? |
|---|---|---|---|
| AR | The letter R | ||
| EF | The letter F | ||
| EL | The letter L | ||
| EM | The letter M | ||
| EN | The letter N | ||
| ES | The letter S | ||
| EX | The letter X | ||
| FA | 4th tone of the solfège musical scale | ||
| FE | Hebrew letter (Pe without a dot in the centre) | 2006 | |
| LA | 6th tone of the solfège musical scale | ||
| MI | 3rd tone of the solfège musical scale | ||
| MU | Greek letter | ||
| NU | Greek letter | ||
| PE | Hebrew letter | ||
| PI | Greek letter | ||
| RE | 2nd tone of the solfège musical scale | ||
| SI | 7th tone of the solfège musical scale (alternative to Ti) | ||
| TE | 7th tone of the solfège musical scale (alternative to Ti) | ||
| TI | 7th tone of the solfège musical scale | ||
| UT | 1st tone of the solfège musical scale (alternative to Do) | ||
| XI | Greek letter | ||
| ZA | Arabic letter | 2006 |
Common Words (24)
These are the really obvious ones; some of the most frequently used words in the language, which explains why they are so short.
| Word | Definition | Recent Addition? | In TWL? |
|---|---|---|---|
| AM | Form of be | ||
| AN | Indefinite article | ||
| AS | To the extent of | ||
| AT | Preposition | ||
| BE | To exist | ||
| BY | Preposition | ||
| DO | To execute | ||
| GO | To move along | ||
| HE | Pronoun | ||
| IF | Conjunction | ||
| IN | Preposition | ||
| IS | Form of be | ||
| IT | Pronoun | ||
| ME | Pronoun | ||
| MY | Pronoun | ||
| NO | Negative response | ||
| OF | Preposition | ||
| ON | Preposition | ||
| OR | Conjunction | ||
| SO | To a great degree | ||
| TO | Preposition | ||
| UP | Toward the sky | ||
| US | Pronoun | ||
| WE | Pronoun |
Ordinary Words (22)
These are words that are in fairly regular usage among certain professions or groups of people, but that are often used more broadly. Not particularly niche, but there are plenty of people that will hardly ever use them, even if they have come across them. This category contains a few abbreviations that have entered the vernacular.
| Word | Definition | Recent Addition? | In TWL? |
|---|---|---|---|
| AB | Abdominal muscle | ||
| AD | Advertisement | ||
| AG | Agricultural | ||
| AX | Axe | ||
| BI | Bisexual | ||
| ED | Education | ||
| ID | Part of the Psyche | ||
| MA | Mother | ||
| MO | A moment | ||
| NE | Born with the name of | ||
| OB | Observation | No | |
| OK | Acceptable/affirmative | 2019 | |
| OP | Operation | ||
| OS | Bone (usually in a medical context) | ||
| OX | A cow or bull | ||
| PA | Father | ||
| TA | Thanks | ||
| UG | To dread | No | |
| UN | One | ||
| WO | Woe | ||
| YA | Pronoun – you | ||
| ZE | Pronoun – Gender neutral third person singular | 2019 | No |
Dialect Words (15)
These are words from a particular dialect of English. They will be very unfamiliar to most people that do not have contact with people that speak the dialect.
| Word | Definition | Recent Addition? | In TWL? |
|---|---|---|---|
| AE | Scots – one | ||
| AY | Scots – yes (also aye) | ||
| CH | Dialect – I | No | |
| DE | Dialect – the | ||
| EA | Dialect – a river | No | |
| EE | Scots – eye (plural een) | No | |
| ET | Dialect – past tense form of eat | ||
| JA | Dialect – yes | 2006 | No |
| JO | Scots – sweetheart | ||
| KY | Scots – cattle | No | |
| NA | Scots – No; Not | ||
| NY | Archaic – nigh; near | No | |
| OE | Scots – grandchild (also oy, oye) | ||
| OU | South Africa – bloke | No | |
| YE | Dialect – Pronoun – you |
Obscure Words (20)
These are very niche words, often borrowed from other languages for a specific purpose.
| Word | Definition | Recent Addition? | In TWL? |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA | Rough, cindery basaltic lava | ||
| AI | A species of three-toed sloth | ||
| AL | The Indian mulberry (also spelled Aal) | ||
| BA | The soul in Egyptian mythology | ||
| DA | A heavy Burmese knife (also spelled Dah) | ||
| DI | Dei (plural of deus) | No | |
| GI | Piece of clothing used in jiu jitsu, karate and judo | ||
| GU | A simple violin used in Shetland (also spelled Gue) | No | |
| KA | The vital essence in Egyptian mythology | ||
| KI | Alternate spelling of Qi | 2006 | |
| KO | A type of play in the game of Go | No | |
| LI | Chinese unit of distance | ||
| OD | A mystic universal life force | ||
| OM | A syllable intoned as part of a mantra | ||
| OO | Hawaiian bird of the genus Moho | No | |
| PO | A chamber pot | ||
| QI | A Chinese life force | ||
| XU | Monetary unit of Vietnam, one hundredth of a dong | ||
| YU | Type of jade | No | |
| ZO | Tibetan breed of cattle (also spelled Dzo) | No |
With this, if you can remember all of the definitions as well as the words themselves, you should be able to avoid the scenario above.
Bonus
The next most useful thing for Scrabble that is fairly easy to learn, is probably the list of words that contain a Q but not U. Here are all of the 3, 4 and 5 letter words that fit this criterion, along with their definitions:
| QAT | Leaves of the shrub Catha edulis, chewed as a stimulant |
| QIS | Plural of qi |
| QADI | Islamic judge |
| QAID | North African Muslim tribal chief |
| QATS | Plural of qat |
| QOPH | Hebrew letter |
| WAQF | A donation of property to charity |
| FAQIR | Muslim or Hindu begging monk |
| NIQAB | Veil covering the face below the eyes |
| QADIS | Plural of qadi |
| QAIDS | Plural of qaid |
| QANAT | Underground irrigation canal |
| QIBLA | The direction towards Mecca, which praying Muslims face |
| QOPHS | Plural of qoph |
| QORMA | Type of curry (alternative spelling of korma) |
| TALAQ | A type of Islamic divorce |
| TRANQ | Slang for tranquilizer |
| WAQFS | Plural of waqf |