A is where the alphabet opens, and in word games it opens wide. The list on this page holds 10,456 words that start with A, the fourth largest family of any letter. That depth matters when you are stuck mid game: whatever tiles you are holding, an A word probably fits them. Type the letters you have into the filter above and the list narrows as you type, or tap any word to copy it straight into your game.
Short words that start with A
No letter gives you more two letter plays. There are 16 of them, running from AA and AB through AX and AY, more than any other starting letter offers. AA is a type of lava and AE means one, and both are legal in North American play, which makes them escape hatches when your rack fills with vowels. The three letter tier adds quick scores like ACE, ADZ, and AWE, and AX upgrades to AXE the moment you find a spare E.
Where the points hide
The A tile is worth a single point in Scrabble, so the payoff comes from what follows it. ABUZZ pays 25 points on five tiles thanks to its double Z. AMAZE and AZOIC land 16, and ADMIX brings 15 with a well placed X. On a full rack, ASPHYXY, a rare spelling of asphyxia, scores 25 before the bingo bonus even kicks in. At the far end of the list sits ANTHROPOMORPHIZATIONS, which runs twenty one letters and tops the whole family at 42 points, a play you will never make but might enjoy knowing about.
Words beginning with A, length by length
The family peaks at eight letters with 1,616 entries, and seven tile racks can draw on 1,243 candidates. Daily puzzle players get 497 five letter words that start with A, including reliable openers like ABOUT, ADORE, and AUDIO that cover the most common vowel patterns. Nearly one in five entries opens with AN, so when you are guessing blind, AN is the percentage play.
Every number on this page is derived from the dictionary itself at build time. If you are curious about the source list, its license, and its full letter counts, our dictionary page has the details.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many words start with the letter A?
This list contains 10,456 words that start with A, out of 172,823 total entries in the ENABLE word list. Every count on this page is computed directly from that dictionary when the site is built, so the numbers always match what the filter finds.
Why is a word I know missing from this list?
We use ENABLE, a public domain word list built specifically for word games. It excludes proper nouns, abbreviations, hyphenated forms, and some newer slang, so a word can be common in everyday writing and still be absent here. Our /dictionary/ page explains exactly which list we use, why we chose it, and how to check it yourself.
Are AA and AE real Scrabble words?
Yes. AA is a rough, cindery type of lava and AE means one. Both appear in ENABLE and both are accepted in North American play, which makes them lifesavers when your rack is drowning in vowels.
What is the highest scoring five letter word that starts with A?
ABUZZ leads the five letter group at 25 points in Scrabble, thanks to its two Z tiles. AFFIX comes next at 18, and AZOTH and AMAZE follow close behind. Use the points sort on this page to see the full ranking for any length.