The X is often a short cut to a high score with very little effort. Perhaps surprisingly, it combines with every vowel to make a two-letter word: AX, EX, OX, XI a Greek letter and XU a Vietnamese coin.
Slip an X next to a vowel, especially on a premium square, and you can score thirty, forty, even fifty or more for a couple of two-letter words.
The X also forms three-letter words with a lot of other high-scoring tiles. Besides BOX, COX, FAX, FIX, FOX, HEX, POX and VEX, there’s:
HOX to hamstring
KEX a plant
MAX reach the full extent
MUX spoil
OXY containing oxygen
PAX peace
PIX or PYX a receptacle used in Church services
VOX a voice
WEX obsolete form of WAX
WOX old past tense of WAX
YEX to hiccup
ZAX or ZEX tool for cutting slate
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.
