2-Letter Scrabble Words: The Complete List
Two-letter words are the smallest plays in Scrabble — and the most valuable knowledge in the game. There are only 127 of them in CSW24, the current edition of Collins Scrabble Words, the word list used in tournament play in most of the world. This page gives you every single one, with its meaning and its points value.
Why two-letter words win games
A two-letter word lets you play alongside a word already on the board, touching it with both of your tiles. Your two tiles then score in your new word and in the extra words they form with the letters they touch — one small play, several scores at once. These "parallel plays" are how strong players turn a leftover Q or Z into 20 or 30 points in a gap nobody else can use. Two-letter words also rescue bad racks: they let you spend one awkward tile, keep the rest of your rack balanced, and wait for a better turn.
They matter for a second reason: hooks. Adding a single letter to the front or back of a short word already on the board scores the whole word again. Many two-letter words extend into the three-letter words — AX becomes AXE, JO becomes JOY, QI becomes QIS — so the two lists work as a pair.
The complete list: 127 words (CSW24)
Every two-letter word in CSW24 (Collins Scrabble Words, 2024 edition), in alphabetical order. Points are the tile values before any board bonuses. Words marked † are in CSW but are not in the North American NWL list — if you play in North America or in an app that uses the NASPA list, those 19 plays will be challenged off. (Two further words, OB and OD, are valid in CSW24; published sources currently differ on whether they are also in the North American list, so they are left unmarked.)
| Word | Points | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| AA | 2 | rough, cindery lava |
| AB | 4 | an abdominal muscle |
| AD | 3 | an advertisement |
| AE | 2 | one (Scots) |
| AG | 3 | agriculture |
| AH | 5 | used to express surprise or delight |
| AI | 2 | a three-toed sloth |
| AL | 2 | an East Indian tree |
| AM | 4 | a form of the verb BE |
| AN | 2 | an indefinite article |
| AR | 2 | the letter R |
| AS | 2 | to the same degree |
| AT | 2 | in the position of |
| AW | 5 | used to express protest or disgust |
| AX | 9 | a chopping tool |
| AY | 5 | yes; an affirmative vote |
| BA | 4 | the eternal soul, in ancient Egyptian belief |
| BE | 4 | to exist |
| BI | 4 | a bisexual person |
| BO | 4 | a friend or pal |
| BY | 7 | near; beside |
| CH † | 7 | an old dialect word for "I" |
| DA | 3 | a father (informal); also a Burmese heavy knife |
| DE | 3 | from, of (in French names) |
| DI † | 3 | the plural of DEUS, a god |
| DO | 3 | to perform or carry out |
| EA † | 2 | a river; a drainage channel |
| ED | 3 | education |
| EE † | 2 | an eye (Scots) |
| EF | 5 | the letter F |
| EH | 5 | used to express doubt or to ask a question |
| EL | 2 | an elevated railway |
| EM | 4 | a unit of measure in printing |
| EN | 2 | a printing measure, half an EM |
| ER | 2 | used to express hesitation |
| ES | 2 | the letter S |
| ET | 2 | the past tense of EAT |
| EW | 5 | used to express disgust |
| EX | 9 | the letter X; a former partner |
| FA | 5 | the fourth note of the musical scale |
| FE | 5 | a Hebrew letter |
| FY † | 8 | used to express reproach or disgust |
| GI | 3 | a martial-arts uniform |
| GO | 3 | to move; also a Japanese board game |
| GU † | 3 | a kind of violin formerly used in Shetland |
| HA | 5 | used to express surprise or triumph |
| HE | 5 | a male person |
| HI | 5 | a greeting |
| HM | 7 | used to express thoughtfulness |
| HO | 5 | used to express surprise or attract attention |
| ID | 3 | part of the psyche, in Freudian theory |
| IF | 5 | on the condition that |
| IN | 2 | inside; within |
| IO † | 2 | a cry of joy or triumph |
| IS | 2 | a form of the verb BE |
| IT | 2 | a pronoun referring to a thing |
| JA † | 9 | yes (South African) |
| JO | 9 | a sweetheart (Scots) |
| KA | 6 | the spiritual self, in ancient Egyptian belief |
| KI | 6 | vital force or energy |
| KO † | 6 | a Maori digging stick |
| KY † | 9 | cattle (Scots) |
| LA | 2 | the sixth note of the musical scale |
| LI | 2 | a Chinese unit of distance |
| LO | 2 | look! behold! |
| MA | 4 | a mother |
| ME | 4 | the objective case of I |
| MI | 4 | the third note of the musical scale |
| MM | 6 | used to express satisfaction |
| MO | 4 | a moment |
| MU | 4 | a Greek letter |
| MY | 7 | belonging to me |
| NA | 2 | no; not (Scots) |
| NE | 2 | born with the name of |
| NO | 2 | a negative answer or refusal |
| NU | 2 | a Greek letter |
| NY † | 5 | an old spelling of NIGH (near) |
| OB | 4 | an objection |
| OD | 3 | a hypothetical force once thought to pervade nature |
| OE | 2 | a whirlwind off the Faeroe Islands |
| OF | 5 | coming from; belonging to |
| OH | 5 | used to express surprise |
| OI | 2 | used to attract attention or express dismay |
| OK | 6 | all right; satisfactory |
| OM | 4 | a sacred syllable used as a mantra |
| ON | 2 | in contact with; supported by |
| OO † | 2 | wool (Scots) |
| OP | 4 | a style of abstract art |
| OR | 2 | otherwise; also gold in heraldry |
| OS | 2 | a bone |
| OU † | 2 | a man or bloke (South African) |
| OW | 5 | used to express pain |
| OX | 9 | a male cow |
| OY | 5 | used to express dismay |
| PA | 4 | a father |
| PE | 4 | a Hebrew letter |
| PI | 4 | a Greek letter |
| PO | 4 | a chamber pot |
| QI | 11 | the life force, in Chinese philosophy |
| RE | 2 | the second note of the musical scale |
| SH | 5 | used to urge silence |
| SI | 2 | the seventh note of the musical scale |
| SO | 2 | in such a way; also the fifth note of the scale |
| ST † | 2 | used to attract attention, or to ask for silence |
| TA | 2 | thanks (British, informal) |
| TE | 2 | the seventh note of the musical scale |
| TI | 2 | the seventh note of the musical scale |
| TO | 2 | toward; in the direction of |
| UG † | 3 | to dread or loathe (old word) |
| UH | 5 | used to express hesitation |
| UM | 4 | used to express hesitation |
| UN | 2 | one (dialect) |
| UP | 4 | to raise; to increase |
| UR † | 2 | used to express hesitation |
| US | 2 | the objective case of WE |
| UT | 2 | the musical note C |
| WE | 5 | the first-person plural pronoun |
| WO | 5 | woe; sorrow |
| XI | 9 | a Greek letter |
| XU | 9 | a Vietnamese coin |
| YA | 5 | you |
| YE | 5 | you (old-fashioned) |
| YO | 5 | used to attract attention or give encouragement |
| YU † | 5 | a precious jade (Chinese) |
| ZA | 11 | pizza (slang) |
| ZE † | 11 | a gender-neutral pronoun |
| ZO † | 11 | a Tibetan breed of cattle, a cross between a yak and a cow |
How to learn them
- Start with the vowel-heavy ones. AA, AE, AI, EA, EE, EU-free plays like OE and OI rescue racks drowning in vowels — there are more of these than most players expect.
- Then the heavy tiles. QI and ZA (11 points each) solve the two hardest tiles in the bag; JO, AX, EX, OX, XI and XU cash in J and X. Our high-scoring words guide shows what they become on premium squares.
- Then the CSW-only extras. If you play internationally, the 19 daggered words — CH, EA, GU, KY, OO, ZE and friends — are legal plays your North-America-trained opponents may not even know.
- Practise with your own racks. After a game, type your worst racks into the Anagram Solver and check which two-letter plays you walked past.
Once the two-letter words are familiar, move on to the complete list of 3-letter Scrabble words — 1,351 of them, including every hook these short words grow into.