All Two-Letter Words

Why Two-Letter Words Win Games

Two-letter words are the secret weapon of every strong Scrabble and Words With Friends player. They are short, easy to memorize, and they unlock plays that would otherwise be impossible. If you learn only one list in your entire word-game career, make it this one — the return on a few hours of study is enormous.

There are three reasons these tiny words matter so much:

• They enable parallel plays. Instead of building off a single open letter, you can lay a word down alongside an existing word. Every place your new tiles touch the old word, a fresh two-letter pair is created — and each of those pairs scores. One well-placed parallel play can form four or five words at once and bank 30 to 50 points from a single turn.
• They let you dump awkward tiles. Stuck with a spare J, Q, X, or Z and nowhere to put it? Words like JO, QI, XU, and ZA let you offload a heavy tile onto a premium square for big points without wasting a whole turn exchanging.
• They open tight boards. Late in a game the board often gets cramped, with very few spots long enough for a real word. Two-letter words slip into those gaps, keeping you scoring when your opponent has given up and started passing.

In short: long words feel impressive, but games are quietly won and lost on the two-letter list. Master it and you will out-score players who know far more "big" words than you do.

The Complete List (107 Words)

Here is the full set of two-letter words valid in the North American (TWL) Scrabble dictionary. Collins / SOWPODS, used in most of the world outside North America, contains everything below plus a handful of extras noted further down.

Dictionary-specific words

A few two-letter words are valid only in certain dictionaries. Include them when you play under Collins / SOWPODS rules, but leave them out in a North American TWL game:

OI (a shout to attract attention), OU (an expression of surprise), ST (used to ask for silence), and UR (a hesitation, like "um") are accepted in Collins but not in the standard North American list. When in doubt, agree on a dictionary before the game starts.

Grouped by First and Last Letter

It is far easier to memorize the list in small, themed batches than as one wall of letters. These groupings cover the words you will reach for most often.

Start with a vowel

Vowel-first words are the workhorses of parallel play because so many tiles slot in front of a common second letter:

End with a vowel

Words that end in a vowel are perfect for hooking onto the start of consonant clusters:

The weird high-value ones (J, Q, X, Z)

These six are the difference between dumping a heavy tile for nothing and turning it into 20-plus points on a triple-letter square:

Consonant-heavy words and interjections

A small group of two-letter words contain little or no vowel sound. They are lifesavers when your rack is jammed with consonants:

Surprising-But-Valid Words and Their Meanings

Some of these look like typos, yet they are completely legal. Knowing what they mean makes them far easier to remember — and lets you defend them confidently if an opponent challenges:

A few more worth knowing: AE means "one" in Scots, OI is used to attract attention, EW expresses disgust, and OK was added to the official lists fairly recently. MU, NU, PI, and XI are all Greek letters, which makes them easy to recall as a set.

How to Study the Two-Letter Words

You do not need to memorize all 107 at once. Work through them in a sensible order and they will stick:

1. Drill the vowel-heavy words first. Words that start or end with A, E, I, O, or U come up far more often than the rare high-value ones, simply because vowels are the most common tiles. Learning AA through UT first gives you the biggest practical payoff.
2. Group them by first letter. Recite them in blocks — all the A words, then the B words, and so on. The brain remembers short rhythmic lists ("AA, AB, AD, AE, AG, AH, AI…") much better than a random scatter.
3. Save the J/Q/X/Z words for last, but know them cold. There are only seven (JO, KA, QI, XI, XU, ZA, ZO). They are rare, but each one is worth a lot of points, so the few minutes it takes to memorize them pays off every time you draw a heavy tile.
4. Quiz yourself in both directions. Cover the list and try to write all the words starting with each letter, then check. Repeat until you can do a full letter block from memory.

Practice them in real racks, too. Drop your tiles into the word unscrambler and it will instantly show every valid two-letter word your letters can make, which is a fast way to see the list in action.

One important note on dictionaries: validity differs slightly between the North American (TWL) and international Collins / SOWPODS lists. The 107 words above are the TWL set; Collins adds words such as OU, ST, and UR. Always confirm which dictionary your game uses before challenging or being challenged.