2 letter words

What is in this list

This list holds 96 words, under 0.1% of the 172,634 words this site keeps from the ENABLE word list. Every word here has 2 letters, and they average 2 letters by construction — so the interesting differences are in which letters they use. Of the 14 lists in this group it is the smallest; “8 letter words” is the largest with 28,394, 296 times as many.

Points and vowels

Using this site's letter values, the average word here scores 4 points (median 4); words of the same lengths across the whole list average 4, so this list scores the same as the dictionary. The top scorers are JO (11), XU (10), AX (9), EX (9).

Vowels (A, E, I, O, U) make up 49.5% of the letters, against 38% across the whole list. 4 words are more than half vowels: AA, AE, AI and OE. 5 words have none of them at all, leaning on Y instead — for example BY, HM, MM and MY.

How the words are built

Position by position, the most likely letters are A in slot 1 (16.7%), O in slot 2 (12.5%). 94 words use 2 different letters with none repeated (97.9%); the rest repeat at least one, and the most common double is AA (1 word).

Word play in this list

The biggest anagram family here is AB and BA — 2 words from the same 2 letters. Altogether 23 sets of anagrams sit inside this list, covering 46 words.

59.4% of these words take an S on the end and stay a word (AA, AB and AD among them); after S, the most useful end letter is T, which extends 44 words. At the front, P turns 34 words into new ones (AD → PAD); T turns 33 words into new ones (AB → TAB); H turns 32 words into new ones (AD → HAD).

Using this list

To narrow it further, open it in the pattern finder: the rule “has 2 letters” is already filled in, and you can add a length, a fixed letter position or letters to leave out. ENABLE was compiled around 2000, so two-letter words added to game dictionaries later — QI, ZA, OK, EW — are not here; check your game's own word list before playing them.