The W comes up in four two-letter words, WE, WO, AW and OW. It’s not at all a bad letter for using in short words with J, X and Z:
JOW to ring a bell
WEX and WOX both forms of WAX
WIZ short form of wizard
The W can often be useful in longer words as well, particularly in combinations like SW- (SWEETEN, SWINGER, SWOLLEN), TW– (TWINKLE, TWOSOME, TWISTER) and WH– (WHETHER, WHISTLE, WHEREAS).
It features in a couple of rather wonderful end-hooks: BUDGERO (an Indian barge) and KABELJOU (a South African fish) can be extended, with the same meanings, to BUDGEROW and KABELJOUW.
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.
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