Words that end in F

What is in this list

This list holds 346 words, 0.2% of the 172,634 words this site keeps from the ENABLE word list. They run from 2 to 12 letters, and the most common length is 4 letters with 79 words (22.8% of the list). The shortest are EF, IF and OF; the longest are ANTIDANDRUFF, BURGLARPROOF, HANDKERCHIEF and QUARTERSTAFF. Of the 12 lists in this group it is the 7th largest: “words that end in ED” leads with 13,318 and “words that end in J” has the fewest, 7.

Points and vowels

Using this site's letter values, the average word here scores 14.2 points (median 14); words of the same lengths across the whole list average 11.5, so this list runs 2.7 points richer. The top scorers are CHIFFCHAFF (28), QUARTERSTAFF (28), JUMPOFF (27), BULLMASTIFF (25). Point for point, JIFF earns the most per letter: 19 points over 4 letters, 4.8 each. F itself is worth 4 points here.

Vowels (A, E, I, O, U) make up 34.2% of the letters, against 38% across the whole list. 2 words are more than half vowels: ALOOF and OAF. Compared with the whole dictionary, the letter most over-represented here is O: 10.6% of the letters, against 6.6% overall.

How the words are built

The letter just before the final F is most often F (41.6% of words), followed by O (18.2%). 211 words have a doubled letter (61%); the most common doubles are FF (146), OO (61), EE (6). The most common three-letter openings are OVE- (7, as in OVENPROOF), SHE- (6, as in SHEAF), SHA- (5, as in SHADOOF).

Word play in this list

The biggest anagram family here is ALEF and LEAF — 2 words from the same 4 letters. Altogether 1 set of anagrams sits inside this list, covering 2 words. 7 words turn into another real word when spelled backwards — ALIF becomes FILA, DECAF becomes FACED, DELF becomes FLED, GOLF becomes FLOG. The longest word with no letter repeated is SEMIDWARF (9 different letters). SHANDYGAFF is the longest word here that uses only one kind of vowel, ahead of SHOCKPROOF.

78.9% of these words take an S on the end and stay a word (AIRPROOF, ALEF and ALIF among them); after S, the most useful end letter is Y, which extends 33 words. At the front, S turns 9 words into new ones (COFF → SCOFF); B turns 5 words into new ones (AFF → BAFF); T turns 5 words into new ones (EFF → TEFF).

Using this list

To narrow it further, open it in the pattern finder: the rule “ends in F” is already filled in, and you can add a length, a fixed letter position or letters to leave out.