SHH requesting silence
TSK expressing annoyance
TWP Welsh word meaning stupid
The all-consonant words exclude those containing Y, which acts as a vowel in words like DRY, and one other rather ridiculous word which we will come to later. You shouldn’t worry about it because, believe me, you will never play it.
Using a three-letter word can be a great way to use the high-scoring tiles J, Q, X and Z, especially by getting the power tile on a double- or triple-letter square. Here are some that might help you:
J first: JUD a block of coal
J second: GJU that Shetland violin again, an alternative spelling to GU.
J third: there are three, HAJ, RAJ and TAJ, all of Indian origin.
Q first: QAT an intoxicating drug
Q third: SUQ an Arab market-place
X first: XIS plural of XI, a Greek letter – the only three starting with X
X second: OXO containing oxygen
X third: TEX a unit of weight of yarn
Z first: ZOL a cannabis cigarette
Z second: AZO a term used in chemistry
Z third: WIZ short for wizard
There are even some three-letter words with two power tiles: JIZ (a wig), ZAX (saxophone) and ZEX (a tool for cutting slates). There are no three-letter words with Q in the middle.
The B is not one of the most useful letters. It’s most often used in shorter words, preferably on a premium square to increase its value, and preferably to help you get rid of your other less useful letters. Good B-words for this are:
BEZ an antler on a deer’s horn
BIZ colloquial for business
JAB
JIB
JOB
WAB dialect form of web
CAB
BAC the baccalaureate, a French exam (and now being introduced in the UK)
FAB
FIB
FOB
FUB to cheat
BAH
BOO
BOA
Here are some B-eautiful words that use unusual letter combinations:
BOOAI thoroughly lost
BRAAI South African barbecue
OBEAH type of witchcraft once supposedly used in the West Indies
BRAAI and OBEAH can also be verbs, so as well as BRAAIS and OBEAHS, you can also have BRAAIED, BRAAIING, OBEAHED and OBEAHING.
There are some U-less (but far from useless) words that contain B with Q:
NIQAB, NIQAAB Muslim veil
QIBLA direction of Mecca, to which Muslims turn when praying
The most likely way of using B in a bonus word is probably something beginning with BE- or BI-. The -ABLE suffix is also worth remembering (NOTABLE, OPENABLE) and quite a few with an optional E in the middle: LIV(E)ABLE, LOV(E)-ABLE, NAM(E)ABLE, MAK(E)ABLE, TAK(E)ABLE.
If you are holding on to the common AEIOU and LNRST letters to look for bonus words, you could use a B to make:
ATEBRIN an anti-malarial drug
BANTIES bantams
BASINET mediaeval helmet
BESAINT to make into a saint
BESTAIN
BAITERS people who use bait
BARITES plural of barite, a mineral
REBAITS
TERBIAS plural of terbia, a white powder
BANISTER
SEABLITE plant of the goosefoot family
INSTABLE
BARONIES lands owned by a baron
SEAROBIN an American fish
With well over 5,000 to choose from, getting a grip on the four-letter words is quite a job. Once again, you can make your life easier by concentrating on the most useful ones; they are the words with excess vowels or excess consonants, words that use J, Q, X and Z, and words that help you get rid of awkward letter combinations.
The most memorable of the four-letter words (though conversely, one you can easily misspell) is EUOI. It is one of various ways to spell “an expression of Bacchic frenzy”. (None of the other ways of spelling it is an all-vowel word.) As Bacchus was the Roman god of wine, what we are basically saying here is it’s what Romans shouted when they were drunk.
Knowing this meaning, you could form a little phrase to remember the tricky spelling. Try:
Excessive Units Of Intoxication
Not only do you remember how to spell the word, you now have an idea what to do when you’re finished playing Scrabble.
But there’s, perhaps sadly, more to life than Bacchic frenzy. There are quite a few fours with three vowels – in fact, every consonant except F and Y is part of at least one three-vowel four. Here is one for every possible combination of three different vowels:
AEI gives IDEA
AEO gives ODEA
AEU gives BEAU
AIO gives IOTA
AIU gives AITU
AOU gives AUTO
EIO gives ONIE
EIU gives LIEU
EOU gives ROUE
IOU – none – except that cry of Bacchic frenzy EUOI
Again, you can see there are a few familiar ones mixed in with some exotica. ODEA, for instance, were Greek or Roman buildings for entertainment, the plural of odeum or the more familiar odeon. An AITU is a half-human, half-divine being, like some of the incredibly good players I try to beat on the tournament Scrabble circuit. A ROUE is a man given to immoral living (some of them on the circuit too), while, more prosaically, ONIE is a Scots version of any.
There are a few four-letter words with no vowels, not even a Y:
BRRR, GRRL, PFFT, PSST
You know three of those, even if you have never thought of them as words in a Scrabble context – BRRR is what you say when you’re cold, PSST is for surreptitiously attracting someone’s attention, and PFFT is one of those words