Two-Letter Words for Scrabble and Words With Friends

It's no big secret that one of the first steps to becoming better at Scrabble (and for that matter, Bananagrams, Quiddler, Upwords, Words With Friends, and similar games) is to know your two-letter words really well. Playing a short-to-medium length word parallel to an opponent's word, forming a whole slew of secondary two-letter words is my favorite thing to do in life. It racks up loads of points even with low-value tiles, and tends to not give away high-scoring opportunities to your opponents. Indeed, according to some guy on the internet, 75% of Scrabble words played are between two and four letters long, and 50% of points earned are from those 2-4 letter words. Memorizing all the three- and four-letter words in the English language is a pretty daunting task, but memorizing the TWO-letter words is not hard at all-- there aren't that many-- and once that's done, learning the two-make-three words (meaning the three-letter words that can be made from existing two-letter words) would probably be a good next step. That, and learning the three-letter words with J, Q, X, or Z.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Step one is to learn the official two-letter words. It's fairly easy to find an official list of two-letter words and just memorize that, but I don't like lists of words without definitions, so I put together a list of all the valid two-letter words along with definitions, random comments, digressive rants, and a few mnemonics for some of the harder-to-remember words. Enjoy.

AA - Aa (pronounced "ah-ah") is a type of lava, the rocky, "extra chunky" kind... as opposed to the smooth, extra creamy type of lava known as "pahoehoe". (Pahoehoe is also a valid Scrabble word, but I don't imagine it gets played quite as often as aa). Aa can also be validly pluralized as "aas", though I don't know how much sense it makes to refer to lava in the plural. It's acceptable in Scrabble though.

AB - What do you get if you have six-pack abs and subtract five of them? You're left with one ab. No, I'm not making that up.

AD - Ads are the annoying things on TV people used to watch before they all got Tivos and DVRs.

AE - Scottish for "one", as in, "tha' sassenach's ae bonnie lass". The Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary (OSPD) is kind of inconsistent as far as including Scottish/Welsh/etc words. Thus, "ae" and "cwm" are arbitrarily considered valid words, but "ch" and "crwd" arbitrarily aren't. Ch! Bludy sassenachs!

AG - short for agriculture. For some reason, the plural of this word, "ags", is acceptable. Actually a pretty good rule of thumb is that you can almost always pluralize a noun in Scrabble, even if it would make little or no logical sense to do so in any conceivable actual sentence. (NOTE: Words With Friends doesn't recognize "ags".)

AH - as in, "ah, finally you played a word". It turns out that "ahs" is also valid (think "oohs and ahs"), as is "aah" and "aha"... BUT "ahh" is invalid; if you have two H's, don't try to play "ahh" or "ehh" like a noob; see if you can play "pahoehoe" and post a picture of it on Facebook Instagram or whatever the kids use these days.

AI - Ai, pronounced like "AH-ee", is what they used to call the three-toed sloth before they decided it was too confusing, but the words "ai" and "ais" are still acceptable for Scrabble purposes.

AL - The al is a type of tree that grows in India. It is more commonly spelled "aal", which is also a valid Scrabble word. Both spellings can be pluralized with -s.

AM - as in, "I am not going to explain this word".

AN - as in, "an easy word that I'm also not going to explain".

AR - the spelled-out name of the letter "R". No, I'm not joking. All English letters have quasi-official spelled-out names that you can use in Scrabble, though some are more useful than others. The most interesting letter names are probably ar, el, es, ef, em, en, ex, cee, zee, and zed (the British say "zed" instead of "zee" for the letter Z-- which reminds me, in case you didn't know, British spellings of words are mostly allowed in Scrabble and WWF, e.g. "centre" or "odour").

AS - as in, "as in, 'as in, «as in,...»'". If I had infinite styles of quote marks I could make this definition infinitely recursive.

AT - as in, "where you at, foo'?"

AW - as in, "aw, shucks". Note that the common variant spelling "aww" is NOT acceptable.

AX - like a hatchet, but bigger. Obviously, "axe" is also acceptable. Fun fact: if you have an X and at least one of any vowel (not counting Y), you can get rid of your X easily: ax, ex, ox, xi, xu... all valid words. Playing an X in such a way that it spells two two-letter words, e.g. "ax" one way and "xi" the other way, will score the eight-point X twice-- an essential move to have in your Scrabble arsenal. So now you'll be happy to see that X in your tray instead of annoyed. You're welcome. ;)

AY - acceptable variant spelling of "aye", or could be the letter A (see AR above). And since it "can" be the letter A, the plural, "ays", is an acceptable word too.

BA - No, not the sound a sheep makes. That's spelled "baa" (which is also a valid word). The ba is an aspect of the soul in ancient Egyptian mythology. Can be plural, "bas". (See also: KA for more about Egyptian mythology).

BE - as in, "why you be trippin'?" Incidentally, "bes" is a valid Scrabble word, but not because it's plural of "be". Bes is an alternate spelling of the Hebrew letter bet/beth. (see FE below for more about Hebrew letters). (Note: I have discovered that "bes" is not a valid WWF word, though it is a valid Scrabble word.).

BI - short for bisexual. If you play "bi" against your 78 year-old grandmother, you will probably have to explain what it's short for-- and possibly you may then have to explain what the long version means also, and then explain how, when, and why you learned such a word. If you are not comfortable doing this, just remember those immortal words attributed to Vince Lombardi: "winning isn't everything; it's the only thing." And then watch in horror as she back-hooks your "bi" with the plural form "bis" and says "in yo face, young whippersnapper".

BO - acceptable variant spelling of "beau", a fancypants word for boyfriend. Both words are pronounced the same way and both are valid Scrabble words. Bo can be pluralized as "bos", and beau can be pluralized as either "beaus" or "beaux" if you are REALLY pretentious.

BY - think of this as an alternate spelling of "bye", as in, "there are only seven teams in the tournament, so one will get a by." If you think of it that way, you'll remember that the plural form "bys" is also acceptable.

DA - [new for OWL 2014] because saying "dad" is too much work. Whether you are allowed to play this word will depend on what you are playing, and specifically what dictionary you're using. "Da" is a new addition to the official Scrabble word list (as of OWL 2014 and OSPD5, OSPD5, of course, referring to the Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary 5th edition). If you are using, say, the OSPD 4th edition, "da" will not be there. Interestingly, Words With Friends also recognizes "da"as valid, but the plural situation is more complicated: "das" is not valid in WWF, but is valid in Scrabble's OWL 2014 and OSPD5.

DE - meaning "from", like the French word. I can't explain why some French loan-words like "de" and "qua" and "beaux" and "amour" and "cirque" made it into the Scrabble dictionary while other at-least-as-equally well-known French loan-words like "moi" and "cheri" didn't. I guess "moi" and "cheri" just don't have that je ne sais quoi. (Note: "Moi" is now recognized in OWL 2014 / OSPD5, but still no amour for moi in WWF. "Moi" is now recognized in WWF as well! Sacre bleu!)

DO - as in, "do I have to explain this one?". Also we have "do" as in, "do-re-mi", the musical scale song from "The Sound of Music". All the do-re-mi music note names are valid Scrabble words: do, re, mi, fa, so, la, and ti/si, and all can be pluralized, since you might have to sing several "dos" in a row (especially if you sing bass). Note that the do-re-mi semitones like "ri" and "le", etc, are NOT considered valid, however.

ED - as in, "special ed".

EF - the letter F (see AR above for explanation).

EH - The E on my car's fuel gauge stands for "Eh, there's still a little bit left."

EL - an elevated train, like they have in Chicago. Also, the letter L.

EM - the letter M.

EN - the letter N.

ER - British for "uh". No doubt much popularized by Harry Potter, who said it a lot in the books.

ES - the letter S. Can also be spelled "ess".

ET - variant of "ate", as in, "I reckon I done et up a whole mess o' grits, y'all".

EW- [new for OSPD 6] an interjection of disgust, as in "ew, gross". Interestingly, OSPD 5 did not include "ew" but did recognize "eew" and "eeew". WWF still does not recognize either of those variant spellings (but has recognized "ew" for a fairly long time now).

EX - the letter X, or could be short for ex-spouse, etc.

FA - a long-long way to run. (See "DO" above for notes about the do-re-mi musical notes).

FE - a Hebrew letter which also can be spelled "feh". It may surprise you to know that all the Hebrew letters are valid, and many have multiple official variant spellings and can help you get rid of annoying tiles like Q, K, P, or V, which makes them worth knowing. Some other particularly useful Hebrew letter names are alef/aleph, beth/bet/bes, tav, vav/vau/vaw/waw, pe/peh, and qoph. And as if that weren't enough, all these can be pluralized.

GI - [new for OWL 2014] a karate or judo uniform. This is a Japanese loanword, pronounced with a hard G and long E sound, i.e. like "ghee" (a word that means "clarified butter"). No plural for it in WWF, but Scrabble will allow "gis" (OWL 2014 / OSPD5).

GO - in addition to the verb-- which I would hope everyone knows already-- there is also the ancient Japanese game of "go", which-- being a noun-- can be pluralized as "gos". (Note: GOS is not allowed in Words With Friends.)

HA - as in, "ha! I bet you didn't know 'gos' was a real word."

HE - the male personal pronoun, as in, "he didn't know that 'he' and 'she' can also be considered nouns in the sense of 'that's not a «he»; that's a «she»,' and thus can be pluralized as 'hes' and 'shes', respectively".

HI - as in, "hi there".

HM - as in, "Hm, I don't have any vowels on my tray so I guess I can't play a word this turn... OH WAIT". Also valid is "hmm", which is a surprisingly useful word in Bananagrams (more so than in Scrabble). But "hmmm" and "hmms" are NOT valid-- have to draw the line somewhere I guess.

HO - as in, "westward ho!" Unlike most interjections, you can back-hook this one with an S (i.e., "hos"). But that's because ho is also a noun, as in... ahem... "bros before hos". I wish you luck explaining "hos" to your 78 year-old grandma. Go for it! Vince Lombardi! (Note: "Hos" is not valid in Words With Friends. Sorry, bros. Bros, rejoice: WWF now has "hos"!)

ID - The id, together with the ego and superego, comprise the psyche, according to Freud. All three parts of the psyche are valid words, as are their plural forms: ids, egos, and superegos.

IF - as in, "if you learn all the official two-letter words, you will improve your Scrabble game greatly". Also: "ifs", as in, "no ifs, ands, or buts" is valid. "Ands" and "buts" are valid words too, by the way.

IN - as in, "In the beginning...". And note that in this case "ins" is acceptable too since "in" can in fact be a noun, as in "I know the ins and outs of Scrabble".

IS - as in, "who dat is?" Note: "dat" is not considered a valid word for some reason.

IT - as in, "I hope you know what it means".

JO - Scottish for sweetheart. "Jo" is probably the most useful J-word to know in Scrabble, and furthermore, jo can also be spelled "joe", which just happens to be the second most useful J-word. Note that "jos" is invalid; the correct plural for both is "joes".

KA - another aspect of the soul according to Egyptian mythology. The ka is said (by dictionary.com) to survive after death, so I guess that means the ba doesn't survive death? Man, I need to brush up on my ancient Egyptian mythology-- there might be more useful Scrabble words to discover. Right now all I got is "ba(s)", "ka(s)", and "ankh(s)".

KI - variant spelling of qi. (See QI below and prepare to have your mind BLOWN). "Kis" is the plural. (Note: while "kis" is valid in Scrabble, it is NOT valid in Words With Friends. You may have already noticed by now, WWF is pretty bad about not including inflected forms of newer words in their word lists. So, for WWF, ki = yes; kis = no.)

LA - a note to follow "so". (See DO above).

LI - a unit of length used in China, about a third of a mile. "Lis" is valid, even though the Chinese languages don't have plural inflections like English.

LO - as in, "and lo, I am with you alway". (Note that "los" is NOT valid). Incidentally, "alway", the old-timey King James variant of "always", is a valid Scrabble word too. Other fun King James words to try to use include such classics as betimes, aright, howbeit and of course thou/thee/thy/thine. While I'm on the subject, at least one KJV-style finite verb, "doeth/doest", is valid but most, e.g. "goeth/goest", "availeth", etc, are not considered valid.

MA - short for "mother", like Ma Beagle from DuckTales.

ME - a name I call myself. Note that "mes" is NOT valid. There's only one me.

MI - a name I call myself (when singing the do-re-mi song). Note that "mis" IS valid. Also see "DO" above for notes about the do-re-mi notes.

MM - as in, "mm, tasty". "Mmm" is also valid. (Note: MMM is NOT valid in Words With Friends. Two ems for you, and no more!) But don't get too crazy-- "mmmm" (with four or more ems) is not valid, even in Scrabble. That would just be ridiculous.

MO - short for moment, as in, "I'll be there in a mo". "Mos" is valid also.

MU - the Greek letter. Just as the spelled-out names of English and Hebrew letters are considered valid (see AR and FE above), so too are the spelled-out Greek letters. By far the most useful of these are mu, nu, pi, xi, tau, eta, and zeta. But if you can drop "omicron" or "lambda" on your opponent, go for it. Feel free to pluralize any of them.

MY - belonging to me. No plural form.

NA - meaning "no". Interestingly, "yesses" and "nos" are valid, but "nas" is not.

NE - acceptable variant spelling of "nee", the word used before a married woman's maiden name.

NO - opposite of "yes". "Nos" is allowed... are allowed... whatever.

NU - the Greek letter (see MU above for more about that).

OD - "Od" is an antiquated scientific term, like "phlogistons" or "choleric", today known only to certain eccentric word-mavens. If you're curious, in times past, od was thought to be a force pervading the universe that manifested in both magnetism and hypnotism, and presumably other ways. It is pronounced the same way as "odd". And although it doesn't make sense to speak of more than one od, since there isn't even one in existence, let alone more than one, "ods" is a valid word also.

OE - The Scrabble dictionary says this is a whirlwind of the Faroe Islands. I cannot determine if that means that there is a particular type of whirlwind that only happens there called an "oe", or if it's some weird loan-word thing (note that they don't speak English in the Faroe Islands, but Faroese and Danish). Most non-Scrabble dictionaries do not offer a definition for "oe". I assume it's pronounced "oy" (just guessing-- it's hard to find info on this word). The plural form, "oes" is valid.

OF - as in, "you should know the meaning of  'of'". No plural form allowed.

OH - as in, "oh, is it my turn?" Also it is the spelled-out name of the letter O (see AR above), so "ohs" is allowed.

OI - British for "hey", as in, "Oi! What's all this then!?"

OM - "Om" is probably the most well-known mantra used by transcendental meditators. Pronounce it with a long O.

ON - Sure, you know this as a preposition meaning "physically supported by" and an adverb that is the opposite of "off", but did you know that "on" can be a noun too? A cricket field is divided into an on side and an off side, referred to as the on and the off. And since it's a noun, it can be plural: "ons" and "offs".

OP - short for operation, as in "black ops" or "spec ops". And if you are wondering, "spec" is valid also.

OR - Hopefully you know what the conjunction "or" means, but perhaps you didn't know that it can be a noun also. The noun "or" is a heraldry term meaning the color gold, and thus can be plural: "doesn't that coat of arms have pretty ors and argents?" Many other technical heraldry terms are valid, e.g. blazon, gules, crosslet, dexter, guardant... but some are not, e.g. chequy, langued.

OS - Now this one is interesting. There are no less than THREE different words spelled "os", with a total of FOUR different plural forms between them! "Os" meaning "a bone" (pronounce with short O), is pluralized as "ossa". "Os" meaning "an orifice of the body" (also pronounced with short O) is pluralized as "ora" (friggin' Latin plurals, man). And "os" (with LONG O and soft S pronunciation) meaning "a long esker" (an esker meaning "a serpentine ridge of gravelly and sandy drift", thank you dictionary.com) is pluralized as "osar" since it is a Swedish loan-word. Alternatively, you can pluralize all three as "oses", which is also a valid word.

OW - as in, "ow, that last word made my brain hurt".

OX - a bull that's been, er, "fixed". Incidentally, both the old-school plural "oxen" and the hip, modern "oxes" are acceptable.

OY - a variant spelling of "oi".

PA - short for father, as in "ma and pa".

PE - a Hebrew letter, also spelled "peh". See FE above for notes about Hebrew letters. Actually, pe and fe are the same letter, strangely enough.

PO - [new for OWL 2014] slang for a chamber-pot. Don't ask me where the Scrabble people got this one; perhaps it's best we not delve into such matters. I assume it's pronounced like the word "pot", just leaving off the T (perhaps with a glottal stop in place of the T?). Note also that "po" is not considered valid in Words With Friends. As of April 2019, Words With Friends now recognizes "po" and its plural "pos".

PI - a Greek letter (see MU above). Fun fact: pi, pe, and our letter P all ultimately derived from the same Phonecian letter, and all still represent the same sound.

QI - a term from traditional Chinese medicine/philosophy/martial arts meaning (basically) "spiritual energy" or "breath". It's also spelled "ki", "khi", or "chi"; probably the "chi" spelling is seen more commonly, but the qi(s) and ki(s) spellings will be most useful to you as Scrabble words. Fun fact: when "qi" was made an official word in the fourth edition of the Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary (OSPD4), the Scrabble world was thrown into mass chaos with rioting in the streets and people calling for the point-value of the Q-tile to be changed. This is because the existence of "qi" completely changes the dynamics of how you play the Q-tile. I would say for myself, I probably play "qi" at least two-thirds of the time I get a Q in my tray (two ways if possible for huge points, or QI one way and QAT or QUA the other way for even huger points).

RE - a golden drop of sun (see DO above).

SH - interjection meaning "be quiet". It's another possibility (along with the aforementioned "hm" and "mm") when you have no vowels in your tray. "Shh" is also valid. While I'm thinking about it, there are also a few other vowel-less words: nth, brr(r), zzz, crwth, cwm. Technically the W functions as a vowel in those last two, but let's not get pedantic. (Note: GRR has now been added to Scrabble as of OWL 2014 and OSPD5, but GRRR [with three ars] is still not valid even though BRRR is. Neither GRR nor GRRR are valid in Words With Friends. Grr! So angry!)

SI - the original spelling of the do-re-mi note "ti". See DO above. They changed "si" to "ti" so the notes could all begin with different letters.

SO - a needle pulling thread, i.e. another do-re-mi note. See DO. Also it's a conjunction of course, but if you think of it as the do-re-mi note, you'll more easily remember that it can be plural: sos.

TA - The Scrabble dictionary says "an expression of gratitude". I have no idea in what crazy slang or regional dialect they say thank you as "ta". Weirdly, "tas" is also valid even though interjections normally are not allowed to be plural (except when they also happen to be Hebrew letters or whatever, as is the case with "hehs"). Regular dictionaries note that "ta(s)" can be a semitone note on the do-re-mi scale or the third letter of the Arabic writing system, but other do-re-mi semitones and Arabic letters are NOT considered valid Scrabble words. I will have to do more research on this one.

TE - [new for OWL 2014] a drink with jam and bread, i.e. an alternate spelling of "ti". Not recognized in older Scrabble dictionaries or Words With Friends. As of April 2019, WWF recognizes "te" also. Note that "tes" is allowed in Scrabble but still not in WWF; as noted above, plural inflections of new words are frequently overlooked in Words With Friends.

TI - a drink with jam and bread (see DO for explanation).

TO - the preposition, like "toward". No noun or verb form so you can't pluralize it.

UH - as in, "uh, is that really a real word?"

UM - as in, "um, I think so." Note that "umm" is valid too. But no plural.

UN - means "one", as in, "I reckon that's a big un right yonder". "Uns" (as in "big uns") is acceptable too.

UP - the direction opposite down. It's also a verb: as in, "he ups the ante", AND a noun, as in "the ups and downs of life", so feel free to slap an es onto the end of up.

US - the objective first-person plural pronoun.

UT - the original "DO" on the do-re-mi scale. Before there was "Do: a deer, a female deer / Re: a golden drop of sun", etc, there was "Ut queant laxis / resonare fibris / Mira gestorum / famuli tuorum / Solve polluti / labii reatum / Sancte Iohannes", which I think you'll agree is almost as good a mnemonic song for remembering the major scale as the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic. The note "ut" (pronounced "oot") was changed to "do" so that the notes would all start with a consonant and end with a vowel.

WE - the subjective first-person plural pronoun.

WO - acceptable variant spelling of "woe". "Wos" is also acceptable.

XI - another Greek letter, my favorite. See MU above.

XU - a former unit of currency in Vietnam, pronounced like "sue". Besides the xu, Vietnam also had the hao (pronounced "how") and the dong (ten xu to the hao and ten hao to the dong... but today only the dong remains). Fun fact: virtually ALL units of currency, both modern (e.g. dollar, yen) and obsolete (e.g. denarius, doit), are valid Scrabble words. In addition to xu, other useful currencies are the hao, dong, euro, yen, sen (which is a fraction of a yen), rin (fraction of a sen), yuan (Chinese currency), jeon (South Korean currency), doit (a now-obsolete currency in I think the Netherlands), sheqel (can also be spelled with a K), zaire (yes, the zaire was once the currency of the country Zaire), and denarii (which is among the top 1000 bingos by letter commonality). Some currencies can be pluralized with an S, though xu and hao cannot. (Denarii is already plural. Its singular is denarius, which is valid also, but not commonly played since it is an eight-letter long word.)

YA - variant of "yeah". Note that "yas" is not valid since there's no noun or verb form of the word "ya". (Note: new for OWL 2014, YAS is valid, probably meaning the "humorous" mispronunciation of "yes". However, it is still invalid in WWF, and if you are using OSPD4 or older.)

YE - as in, "ye who are spiritual, restore such a one" (...such a one as plays "bi" against their grandmother, that is).

YO - as in, "yo, the entry for XU totally blew my mind".

ZA - Supposedly, "za" is slang for "pizza". I can't find any documentation for this aside from the Scrabble dictionary though, so I'm not even sure how it's supposed to be pronounced (I prefer "zuh"). But whatever, "za(s)" will serve you in good stead as a Scrabble word, much like QI.

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SPECIAL WORDS WITH FRIENDS ADDENDUM: There are an additional three four seven make that eight two-letter words in WWF that are considered valid in that game, but not (currently) recognized in Scrabble. These words are DI, FI, JA, JE, IO, EE, OO, and OU.

I do not know what FI or DI are supposed to mean-- possibly they could refer to do-re-mi semitones, but other semitones like "ri" are still not valid in WWF. Probably they had some other meanings in mind for di and fi, but I do not know for sure. If I had to guess, I might venture that "fi" is back-formed from "re-fi" (short for "refinance") or "hifi" (high fidelity, referring to audio devices) or, less likely, "wifi" (wireless internet), but I have never actually heard or seen the word "fi" used by itself to mean "finance" or "fidelity" or whatever (and "fis" is not allowed by WWF, so it may not even be a noun, though WWF is very inconsistent when it comes to remembering to add plurals of new words, so the lack of "fis" may not mean anything). As for "di", I have no idea what they were thinking. "Dis" IS allowed; however, it's probably short for "disrespect", e.g. don't dis my two-letter word list.

I discovered that JA, JE, IO, EE, OO, and OU are playable WWF words in late April 2019. I suppose JA is from German (where "ja" means "yes"), but is "ja" really used commonly enough in English to be considered an English word? It would seem so, according to some. I assume OO is a variant spelling of OOH. The others I am not sure about. As of the current time, these words only work on the desktop/Facebook version; the mobile app version of WWF does not yet accept them, though I expect that will be fixed before too long.)

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SPECIAL OWL 2014 ADDENDUM:  Four additional two-letter words became official for Scrabble with the release of OWL 2014 and OSPD5. These are DA, GI, PO, and TE. Entries have been added for them above. But be aware, if you are playing Scrabble using an OSPD4 (or older), those words are likely to be challenged! Of these four, DA and GI are also recognized in WWF, but PO and TE are currently not. WWF now recognizes all of these words.

At some point, I need to add the two-letter words that are new for OSPD6 that aren't yet in WWF, which I believe consist only if IE and OK (I don't yet have a copy of OSPD6).

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(Note: the preceding was originally posted by me in slightly different form as a Facebook Note, back when those were a thing, in the distant primordial past of April 2012.)