N never draws attention to itself, and that is its strength. The letter opens 4,392 of the 172,823 words in this dictionary, costs one point in Scrabble and two in Words With Friends, and combines with almost anything. When your rack refuses to cooperate, an N word is often the play you find last but should have seen first.
No vowel, no problem
The star of the section is nth, as in the nth degree. It is a real, playable word with no A, E, I, O, U, or even Y, one of the very few in the entire dictionary that manages the trick. Nymph pulls a related stunt, scoring 15 points while dodging every ordinary vowel. For gentler exits, the two letter plays are na, ne, no, and nu, and the Greek letter nu is the one opponents forget exists.
Where N gets loud
For a one point tile, N leads into some noisy scores. Nozzle and nuzzle are twins at 24 points each, nudzh tops the five letter group at 18, and nix turns a dead corner into quick points whenever an X is loose. At the opposite extreme, the longest N entry is nonrepresentationalisms, twenty three letters of art criticism that will never fit a board but anchors the far end of the list.
An unusually flat mountain
Most letters spike hard at one length. N barely does: the eight letter group holds 538 words and the nine letter group 534, nearly a tie, with strong counts stretching well past ten letters. In practice that means long N racks stay live deeper into the game than you would expect from a mid size letter.
For daily puzzle players
The 200 five letter N words include noise, north, novel, nudge, and nurse, and yes, ninja and nacho are both legal here. N is a better second guess than opener, since it tests only one common consonant on its own.
Every number above is computed from the dictionary at build time. Filter by length, re-sort by points, tap any word to copy it, or hand your letters to the word finder to see which N words your rack really makes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is nth really a playable word?
Yes. Nth, as in the nth time, is in the list and needs no vowel of any kind, not even a Y. Alongside na, ne, no, and nu it gives N players some of the handiest rack cleaners in the game.
What does nudzh mean and why is it worth so much?
Nudzh, borrowed from Yiddish, means to pester someone, and it is the top five letter N word at 18 points. Its unusual consonant cluster is exactly what makes it valuable and hard for an opponent to see coming.
How many five letter words start with N?
This dictionary contains 200 five letter N words, a smaller pool than most common letters offer, which makes the whole set quick to scan before a Wordle guess.
Why does another site list more N words than this page?
Different tools ship different dictionaries. Our numbers come from the open ENABLE list and are recomputed on every build, so the page and the list can never disagree with each other. See the dictionary page for the source, its license, and the full letter breakdown.