Reference
All 96 two-letter words.
Short as they are, two-letter words decide more word games than any others: they let you play in two directions at once and rescue racks that look unplayable. This is the complete set from the same word list our unscrambler searches — 96 words, grouped by first letter, each with its tile score.
The complete list
There are 96 two-letter words in this list. The high-value members are the ones to learn first: QI and ZA (11 points each, and QI famously needs no U), JO and AX and EX and OX (9–10), and the X family — XI and XU — which turn the hardest tile in the rack into easy points. Lists used by official tournaments differ slightly from this public lexicon in a few entries, but the two-letter core is stable across virtually all of them.
A
B
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
U
W
X
Y
Why two letters are worth memorising
A two-letter word played parallel to an existing word scores for every cross-word it completes too, so a modest-looking placement can quietly total more than a long word in open space. They are also the standard escape hatch: when the Scrabble finder offers nothing longer, one of these almost always fits somewhere. New players who learn this list — under a hundred words — typically improve faster than players who memorise anything else in the game.
Frequently asked questions
- How many two-letter words are there in Scrabble?
- It depends on the dictionary: current official lists contain a few more than the 96 in this public lexicon, because tournament lists add some entries (mostly newer or borrowed words) and drop a few. The difference is small and rarely affects casual play.
- What is the highest-scoring two-letter word?
- QI and ZA, at 11 points each before board bonuses — which is why both are famous. QI is also strategically precious because it plays a Q without needing a U.
- Is AA really a word?
- Yes — aa is a type of rough, jagged lava, and it is one of several two-letter entries (like AB, AD, AG, AL, AR and AW) that began life as abbreviations or clippings before dictionaries adopted them.