Two-letter words are the most useful words in Scrabble-style games. They let you play alongside existing words, score in two directions at once and get rid of awkward tiles. The ENABLE word list contains 96 two-letter words. Many players learn the whole list; it is short enough to memorise in a few sessions.
The complete 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 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 OM ON OP OR OS OW OX OY PA PE PI RE SH SI SO TA TI TO UH UM UN UP US UT WE WO XI XU YA YE YO
Highest-scoring two-letter words
| Word | Tile score |
|---|---|
| AX | 9 |
| EX | 9 |
| JO | 9 |
| OX | 9 |
| XI | 9 |
| XU | 9 |
| BY | 7 |
| HM | 7 |
| MY | 7 |
| KA | 6 |
| MM | 6 |
| AH | 5 |
How to learn them
Group the words by letter rather than learning them alphabetically. Start with the words containing high-value letters: AX, EX, OX, XI and XU for the X, JO for the J, and KA for the K. Then learn the vowel-heavy words such as AA, AE, AI and OE, which help when your rack is full of vowels. Finally, learn the words with H, M and Y, such as HM, MM, OY and AY, which are easy to forget.
Using two-letter words in play
- Parallel plays: placing a word directly alongside another forms several two-letter words, and every one of them scores.
- Double scoring a heavy tile: an X on a premium square can score in both directions, for example as AX across and XI down.
- Fixing a vowel-heavy rack: words such as AA, AI and OE play off vowels while scoring a few points.
Words that are not in ENABLE
ENABLE was compiled before some recent additions to official lists. QI and ZA, for example, are accepted in current official Scrabble lists but are not in ENABLE, so they do not appear here. If your group plays with an official list, check those additions separately.
All lists come from the public-domain ENABLE word list. ENABLE is not an official tournament dictionary, so check doubtful words against the list your game uses.
Frequently asked questions
How many two-letter words are there?
The ENABLE list has 96. Official Scrabble lists differ slightly; Collins Scrabble Words, used in the UK and many other countries, has more.
Is QI a word?
QI is accepted in current official Scrabble lists but it is not in the ENABLE list used by PuzleFix.