The letter W

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:

JAW

JOW to ring a bell

WAX

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.

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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