The letter A: Too much of a good thing

If you have too many letter As, there are plenty of short words to help get you out of trouble:

AA – a type of volcanic lava

AAH – exclamation of surprise, pleasure, etc.

AAL – an Asian shrub or tree

AAS – plural of AA

ABA – type of cloth made from goat or camel hair

AGA – Muslim ruler

AHA – exclamation of triumph or surprise

AIA – a maid or nanny

AKA – a type of vine

ALA – a wing

AMA – a vessel for water

ANA – a collection (e.g. Victoriana)

AUA – yellow-eye mullet

AVA – a Polynesian shrub

AWA – away

BAA – sound made by a sheep

CAA – Scots for call

FAA – Scots for fall

MAA – sound made by a goat

By Barry Grossman

Barry is a leading UK Scrabble player and winner of several tournaments. He is the author of Scrabble for Beginners (Chambers), Need to Know Scrabble, Scrabble – Play to Win and The Little Book of Scrabble Trickster. He has also contributed to numerous other books on the subject of words and word-games, has been a series champion of Channel 4’s Countdown, and has written four comedy series for BBC Radio 4. He lives in Hertford.

All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.

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