3 Letter Words That Start With O

65 words in this list, every one checked against the YAWL dictionary.

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3 Letter Words 65

Which of these words score the most in Scrabble?

The highest scoring words from this list, ranked by Scrabble letter values.

Browse Words by First Letter

Word Finders by Length

Holding a rack rather than browsing? Most games are won at four, six, and seven tiles, so start with the 4 Letter Word Finder, the 6 Letter Word Finder, or the 7 Letter Word Finder, then pick any other length below.

This page lists every one of the 65 three letter words that start with O. Type the letters you hold into the filter above and the list narrows instantly to the plays that fit your rack, and sort by score or alphabet whenever it helps.

The words the letter has

O opens a wide, vowel rich group that is a gift on a crowded board. The everyday words lead: OAF, OAK, OAR, OAT, ODD, ODE, OIL, OLD, OLE, ONE, OPT, ORB, ORE, OUR, OUT, OWE, OWL, and OWN. A run of short specialist plays follows, OBE, OBI, OCA, OES, OHM, OHO, OKA, OKE, OMS, OPE, OPS, ORA, ORC, ORS, ORT, OSE, OUD, OVA, and the high scoring OXO and OXY.

Scoring the best three letter words starting with O

The O is worth only a point, so the top scores lean on the letters it carries. OXY leads at 13 points thanks to its X and Y, and OXO reaches 10 on the X. OFF scores 9 with a doubled F and OHM makes 8. The rest are cheap, but that is their virtue: an O word slots in almost anywhere, which is why this list is a reliable outlet for a spare vowel.

Short words in Scrabble

Three letter words carry a tile game, and the O set is one of the most playable of all. A leading O hooks onto countless words, and the many two vowel entries here let you shed a clogged rack. Learning the full list means you can nearly always find a legal home for an O, open a bonus square, or bridge two words already on the board.

How the count is made

Every figure on this page is recomputed from one pinned dictionary on each build, never written in by hand, and the list is a direct slice of that same file. That is why the count in the heading, the numbers in the copy, and the results from the filter can never disagree. If the total looks different from another site, this is the honest YAWL figure, and the dictionary page sets out the source list and its license. When you would rather rearrange a whole rack than browse by letter, send your letters to the three letter word finder.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many three letter words start with O?
There are 65 three letter words that start with O in this list, out of 1,255 three letter words in YAWL overall. Every count here is generated from the dictionary at build time, so it always matches what the filter finds.
What are some useful three letter words starting with O?
OAK, OAR, OAT, ODD, ODE, OIL, OLD, ONE, OPT, ORB, ORE, OUR, OUT, OWE, OWL, and OWN are the most familiar. Short specialist plays like OBE, OCA, OKA, OPE, and OSE are worth learning for a tight board. Filter this list by the letters you hold to see only the plays that fit.
Which three letter word starting with O scores the most in Scrabble?
OXY leads at 13 points on its X and Y, and OXO makes 10 on the X. OFF reaches 9 with its two F tiles, and OHM makes 8. Most O words are cheap, which is exactly why they are so easy to play onto a busy board.
Why is a word I expected not on this list?
These pages are built from YAWL, a public domain list made for word games, which leaves out proper nouns, abbreviations, and hyphenated forms. Names starting with O will not appear as a result. The [dictionary page](/dictionary/) publishes the exact list, its license, and its full counts so you can check any word against the source.