All 100 Two-Letter Words, With Points and Meanings
There are 100 two-letter words in our game dictionary. The highest scoring are QI and ZA (11 points each), followed by AX, EX, JO, OX, XI and XU at 9 points. Learning all 100 is the single fastest way to improve at tile-based word games, because two-letter words let you play alongside other words and score in two directions at once.
Key facts
- 100 valid two-letter words; 45 of them are common in everyday English.
- QI and ZA score 11 points each with classic tile values.
- 16 two-letter words start with A, more than any other letter.
- Only three two-letter words have no vowel at all: HM, MM and SH.
The full list
AA, AB, AD, AE, AG, AH, AI, AL, AM, AN, AR, AS, AT, AW, AX, AY, BA, BE, BI, BO, BY, DE, DO, ED, EF, EH, EL, EM, EN, ER, ES, ET, EW, EX, FA, GO, HA, HE, HI, HM, HO, ID, IF, IN, IS, IT, JO, KA, LA, LI, LO, MA, ME, MI, MM, MO, MU, MY, NA, NE, NO, NU, OD, OE, OF, OH, OK, OM, ON, OP, OR, OS, OW, OX, OY, PA, PE, PI, QI, RE, SH, SI, SO, TA, TI, TO, UH, UM, UN, UP, US, UT, WE, WO, XI, XU, YA, YE, YO, ZA.
You can also see them as tiles with points on our 2-letter words page.
The ones people argue about
Many valid two-letter words look like abbreviations or typos. Here is what some of them mean:
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| AA | a type of rough, cindery lava |
| AE | one (Scottish) |
| AI | a three-toed sloth |
| FA | the fourth note of the musical scale |
| JO | a sweetheart (Scottish) |
| KA | the spiritual self in Egyptian religion |
| OE | a whirlwind off the Faroe Islands |
| QI | the life force in Chinese philosophy |
| XU | a former monetary unit of Vietnam |
| ZA | informal for pizza |
How to learn them quickly
- Group them by letter. Start with the 16 A-words and the 13 O-words: together they are more than a quarter of the list.
- Learn the high scorers first: QI, ZA, JO, AX, EX, OX, XI, XU, then KA, OK and the Y words (AY, BY, MY, OY, YA, YE, YO).
- Remember the vowel-less three: HM, MM and SH. They are lifesavers when your rack has no vowels.
- Practise with the word checker: type a list of two-letter guesses and see which are valid.
Sources
- Our own list from ENABLE, plus QI, ZA, EW and OK, which are accepted in current North American game dictionaries.
- Definitions adapted from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University, and standard dictionaries.
