96 Two-Letter ENABLE Words: Scores, Definitions and Game Uses
There are 96 two-letter words in the ENABLE English word list, from AA to YO. Six of them tie for the highest raw Scrabble® score at 9 points before board bonuses: AX, EX, JO, OX, XI and XU. Each entry below ships with its Scrabble score, a short definition and typical uses in tile-based word games (Scrabble, Words With Friends, Wordscapes). Collins Scrabble Words (UK / international) accepts 127 two-letter words — a superset of ENABLE. QI and ZA are legal in Collins but are not in ENABLE. The list is ordered alphabetically; use the filter box below to jump to a specific starting letter.
Word list
A
B
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
U
W
X
Y
Point values shown are Scrabble® (letters only, before board bonuses). Browse deeper via the word-lists hub.
Top 10 highest-scoring words
Scored on letters only (no board bonuses). WWF uses different tile values from Scrabble — J, Q and Z are worth 10 points in WWF; X is worth 8.
| # | Word | Scrabble | WWF |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | jo | 9 | 11 |
| 2 | xu | 9 | 10 |
| 3 | ax | 9 | 9 |
| 4 | ex | 9 | 9 |
| 5 | ox | 9 | 9 |
| 6 | xi | 9 | 9 |
| 7 | by | 7 | 7 |
| 8 | hm | 7 | 7 |
| 9 | my | 7 | 7 |
| 10 | mm | 6 | 8 |
What these words mean
- jo
- (noun)Darling, sweetheart.
- xu
- (noun)A minor unit of currency in Vietnam, now little-used, forming a hundredth of a dong.
- ax
- (noun)A tool for felling trees or chopping wood etc. consisting of a heavy head flattened to a blade on one side, and a handle attached to it.
- ex
- (noun)The name of the Latin-script letter X.
- ox
- (noun)An adult castrated male of cattle (B. taurus).
- xi
- (noun)The 14th letter of Classical and Modern Greek. The 15th in Ancient and Old Greek.
- by
- (preposition)Preposition indicating the agent, means, or path of an action (for example, "a novel by an author" or "travel by train"); in Scrabble a valid two-letter word.
- hm
- (interjection)A shorter variant of hmm.
- my
- (interjection)Used to express surprise, shock or amazement.
- mm
- (interjection)An expression used to show contentment for something
Definitions from the Free Dictionary API, cached for repeat visits.
Strategy for this list
Two-letter words are the single most valuable memorisation project in Scrabble. Their point value is trivial — most sit at 2 or 3 — but their value is structural: they are the tiles that make parallel plays legal. Every time a five-letter word sits alongside an existing word, each aligned pair of letters must also spell a valid two-letter word. From our ENABLE list, learn XI, XU, JO and the E-family first — they combine high scoring letters with flexible board fits. QI, ZA, ZO, OI and DA are NOT in ENABLE but are valid in Collins Scrabble Words. Counts vary by dictionary: our shipped ENABLE list contains 96 two-letter words, and the current Collins Scrabble Words list contains 127. Once the full list is memorised for your dictionary, a typical turn goes from a 90-second search to an autopilot scan.
FAQs
How many two-letter words are there?
It depends on the dictionary. ENABLE (this page) contains 96. Collins Scrabble Words (UK / international) contains 127 — a superset of ENABLE. Always check the specific list your tournament or app uses.
What is the highest-scoring two-letter word in Scrabble?
Six ENABLE two-letter words tie for the top raw score at 9 points before board bonuses: AX, EX, JO, OX, XI and XU. ZA and QI both score 11 on their letters alone — neither is in ENABLE, but both are valid in Collins Scrabble Words.
Is QI a real word?
Yes — QI is in Collins Scrabble Words, but it is not in the ENABLE list this page ships, so you won't see it in our results.