Ok, so you've memorized the list of valid 2-letter words, but when challenged after playing one, can you smugly demonstrate your dominating intellect by spouting out the proper definition?
If you're anything like me, chances are you'll find yourself babbling something defensibly about the 2-letter word list you spent hours memorizing because you're that much of a Scrabble nerd.
Well, if you really are that much of a Scrabble nerd, you're in luck! I present for you the complete list of Scrabble's 2-letter words along with their definitions (and whether you can extend them with an "S", an "ES", or something a little more bizarre (EEN, for instance).
Enjoy.
A
AA - Rough jagged lava found in Hawaiian volcanoes.
AB - An abdominal muscle.
AD - A short form of advertisement.
AE - One -- Can be extended with "S".
AG - Agriculture
AH - To say "Ah" for joy. Ex: "Ah Ha!".
AI - A three-toed South American sloth.
AL - An East Indian tree.
AM - A present tense of the verb be. -- Can be extended with "S".
AN - A form of the indefinite article. -- Can be extended with "S".
AR - The letter "R". (seriously)
AS - To that extent.
AT - In the position of. -- Can be extended with "S".
AW - Exclamation of disappointment. -- Can be extended with "S".
AX - To work on with an axe.
AY - An affirmative vote -- Can be extended with "E".
B
BA - The eternal spirit in Egyptian mythology.
BE - To exist.
BI - A bisexual person.
BO - Slang for friend.
BY - Near; A side issue. -- Can be extended with "S".
C
CH - English dial. for I. -- Can be extended with "S".
D
DA - A Burmese heavy knife.
DE - Preposition meaning of or from, in names. -- Can be extended with "S".
DI - A plural of deus (a god).
DO - To achieve; A celebration. -- Can be extended with "S" or "ES".
E
EA - A river.
ED - Education.
EE - Scots. dial. for eye. -- Can be extended with "N" or "S".
EF - The letter "F". (seriously)
EH - To say "Eh" for surprise.
EL - An elevated railway.
EM - A printer's measure.
EN - Another printer's measure. (half of an EM)
ER - An expression of hesitation.
ES - The letter "S". -- Can be extended with "ES".
ET - A past tense of eat. -- Can be extended with "S".
EX - The letter "X". (seriously) -- Can be extended with "ES".
F
FA - A musical note.
FE - A Hebrew letter.
FY - An interj. expressing disgust (also FIE). -- Can be extended with "S".
G
GI - A judo or karate costume.
GO - To depart; a Japanese board game. -- Can be extended with "S" or "ES".
GU - A simple violin used in Shetland. (also GJU, GUE)
H
HA - An exclamation of surprise.
HE - A male.
HI - An exclamation of greeting.
HM - Interj. expressing thoughtful consideration. -- Can be extended with "S".
HO - Interj. calling attention.
I
ID - Part of the psyche.
IF - A condition.
IN - To harvest.
IO - A cry of joy.
IS - A present tense of be. -- Can be extended with "S".
IT - Impersonal pronoun.
J
JA - Yes.
JO - A sweetheart. -- Can be extended with "ES".
K
KA - To serve. -- Can be extended with "E".
KI - The spirit of Japanese martial art. Also, see QI.
KO - A Maori digging stick.
KY - Cows. -- Can be extended with "E" or "S".
L
LA - A musical note.
LI - A Chinese distance unit.
LO - Look, behold.
M
MA - Mother.
ME - A musical note.
MI - Also a musical note (same as ME, above).
MM - Exclamation of satisfaction. -- Can be extended with "S".
MO - A moment.
MU - A Greek letter.
MY - Belonging to me. -- Can be extended with "S".
N
NA - Interj. of disbelief.
NE - Arch. form of not. -- Can be extended with "S".
NO - A no vote. -- Can be extended with "ES".
NU - A Greek letter.
NY - To approach. -- Can be extended with "S" or "ES".
O
OB - An objection.
OD - A mystic universal force.
OE - A grandchild in Scotland (also OY, & OYE).
OF - Belonging to. -- Can be extended with "S".
OH - To exclaim "Oh" for surprise.
OI - Interj. calling attention. -- Can be extended with "S".
OM - A syllable intoned as part of a mantra.
ON - To go on.
OO - Wool.
OP - An abstract art style.
OR - The heraldic color gold.
OS - A bone. -- Can be extended with "ES".
OU - A bloke.
OW - Interj. expressing pain. -- Can be extended with "S".
OX - A mammal with hooves. -- Can be extended with "ES".
OY - Same as OE, above.
P
PA - Father.
PE - A Hebrew letter -- Can be extended with "H".
PI - To jumble or disorder.
PO - A chamber pot.
Q
QI - A Chinese life force.
R
RE - A musical note.
S
SH - Interj. requesting silence. -- Can be extended with "S".
SI - A musical note.
SO - A musical note (also SOH).
ST - An exclamation of impatience. -- Can be extended with "S".
T
TA - Thanks.
TE - A musical note.
TI - A small tree.
TO - As far as.
U
UG - To cause hatred.
UH - Interj. expressing disbelief. -- Can be extended with "S".
UM - Interj. of hesitation. -- Can be extended with "S".
UN - One.
UP - To increase.
UR - Interj. expressing hesitation. -- Can be extended with "S".
US - A third person pronoun. -- Can be extended with "S".
UT - A musical note.
W
WE - A third person pronoun. -- Can be extended with "S".
WO - A curse.
X
XI - A Greek letter.
XU - A Vietnamese coin -- Can be extended with "S".
Y
YA - You. -- Can be extended with "S".
YE - You.
YO - A call for effort.
YU - Precious jade.
Z
ZA - Contraction of "pizza".
ZO - A Himalayan cross between a yak and a cow (also DZO, DSO, ZHO, DZHO).
Tip
- Did you know: The only letter that can't start a valid 2-letter word is "V".
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11 Comments
Good list. But you should note which list this is for.
Scrabble play in North America uses the OWL (or TWL), which translates to the "Official Tournament and Word List". It's used for competitive play, and there are only 101 acceptable two-letter words. Also, home and school play in the United States and Canada contain these 101 words in the OSPD (Official Scrabble Players Dictionary).
The following words in this list are not deemed words in North American play:
CH, DA, DI, EA, EE, FY, GI, GU, IO, JA, KO, KY, NY, OB, OO, OU, PO, ST, TE, UG, UR, YU, ZO
This list contains 124 two-letter words, which are from the SOWPODS, which is an anagram of the acronyms OSPD (Official Scrabble Players Dictionary - North American) and OSW (Official Scrabble Words - British). This list is more for international Scrabble play and world competitions.
Good Point!
bo = slang for friend? but i thought slang was not allowed in scrabble?
The exact definition given in the OSPD4 for BO is "a pal". If it's slang, it's become common enough in North America to move it from "slang" to an actual "word". It has to become pretty widely used in order to gain this status. Just like "ZA" (pizza) has become widely used (even though I've never used it).
The definition provided by the Collins (OSW) Dictionary is "exclamation used to startle or surprise someone, especially a child in a game".
These 2 definitions show how different a word can mean from one country to another.
i use ZA everyday.... but it's more when i commit acts of magic than in regards of pizza.
i.e. - i have jumped over a tree and upon landing shout, "ZA!"
"everyday"?
Thank you for sharing this post. I learn a lot of two letter words which I can use in Scrabble. Great job!
Are "short forms" technically different from abbreviations? If abbreviations are not allowed, then how can words such as "ab" or "ad", or "ag", "mo", etc., which are defined as short forms of words, be allowed?
Also, "et" as past tense of "to eat" I have heard but "can be extended with "s". "Ets"?? Can someone use that in a sentence? I can't come up with one where the equivalent of "ate" can be extended with an "s".
Shorts forms are "words" you would actually say out loud. They're kind of slang versions of their longer counterparts used in everyday speech. Ab, ad, and ag are all terms you'll hear thrown about in normal conversation, pronounced as such.
Abbreviations are not words, just shortened versions of words, more for use in written form and usually includes a dot, like ct., mt., and st. Their spoken versions are pronounced using their original long versions (count, mount, street).
And... ets is wrong. It's not a playable word in Scrabble in North America or Europe. Must be a typo.
Hello. Do you know why Facebook's Scrabble (desktop) does not accept "da"? Thanks.
I would assume that they haven't upgraded to the OSPD5 yet, since DA was a new inclusion to the Scrabble Dictionary. In the game's "help" page, it makes it look like it's still using the OSPD4 dictionary, even though the "about" section has the OSPD5 edition listed. Who knows when they'll actually update the game. The new dictionary has been out for months now. The mobile version is the same way, and even the Scrabble dictionary iOS app hasn't been updated yet. Very slow progress on OSPD5 adaption.
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