Appendix:Glossary of two-letter English words

The English language contains various two-letter words. The number is reduced somewhat by the "three letter rule". Here is a list of such words. Some of these words are debatable, because they are archaic, slang, proper names, or words borrowed from other languages.

The common two-letter words are: am, an, as, at, (ax), be, by, do, go, he, if, in, is, it, me, my, no, of, ok(ay), on, or, ox, so, to, up, us, we.

English words

 * aa/a'a – a basaltic lava having a rough, broken surface
 * Ab – alternative Romanization of Av
 * ae – one (Scotts)
 * ah – expressing various emotions such as surprise, delight, disgust, or pain
 * ai – a three-toed South American sloth
 * al – southeast Asian tree
 * am – first person singular present indicative of the verb "to be"
 * an – the indefinite article used before vowel sounds
 * ao – green and blue, seen as one color
 * Ao – the god of the clouds in Polynesian mythology
 * ar – R
 * as – a preposition meaning "to the same extent or degree"
 * at – a preposition meaning "in the area occupied by"
 * Av – a month of the Hebrew calendar (see Ab)
 * aw – used variously to express sympathy, tenderness, disapproval, or disbelief by means of slight differences in pronunciation
 * ax – axe; tool with a sharp blade for felling trees or chopping wood
 * ay – aye; an affirmative vote, or always
 * ba – part of the Egyptian soul; also to kiss (archaic); in some dialects, father
 * be – to exist
 * bo – a friend, or a weapon used in martial arts
 * br – [rare spelling of] brr; expressing shivering
 * by – preposition meaning "near to"
 * ce – the letter C
 * da – a heavy Burmese knife, father, or the
 * de – preposition meaning of or from in names and in phrases recently borrowed from the Latin or French (de jure, de facto, coup de grace)
 * do – to execute, also first tone of the diatonic scale
 * 'e'e – an extinct Hawaiian bird
 * ef – the letter F
 * eh – indicating a lack of understanding
 * el – the letter L, also the god of rain in Canaanite mythology, and also short for "elevated train"
 * em – a type of dash used in typesetting, the letter M
 * en – a type of dash used in typesetting, the letter N
 * er – expressing hesitation
 * es – the letter S
 * et – pronunciation spelling of ate, the simple past and past participle of eat
 * ew – expressing disgust
 * ex – the letter X, also one's former spouse or love interest
 * ey – a gender-neutral neopronoun, or same as yo
 * fa – fourth tone of the diatonic scale
 * Ga – a language spoken in Ghana
 * ge – alternative spelling of Gaia
 * gi – a white garment worn in martial arts
 * go – to move; also an oriental board game
 * ha – expressing triumph or laughter; also (with initial capital) the god of the deserts in Egyptian mythology
 * he – third person singular masculine nominative pronoun; also an onomatopoeia of laughter
 * hi – hello
 * hm – expressing thought
 * hn – used to tag a rhetorical question
 * ho – used to attract attention; also a contraction of hoe (high ground) as in Aynho; also a contraction of whore (slang)
 * Hu – the god of the creation word in Egyptian mythology
 * id – one of the three components of the psyche
 * if – a conjunction meaning "in the event that"
 * in – a preposition meaning "inside"
 * Io – the daughter of Inachus in Greek mythology; also a moon of Jupiter; and also a Hawaiian species of hawk
 * is – third person singular present indicative of "to be"
 * it – third person singular neutral pronoun
 * jo – dear, sweetheart (Scots)
 * ka – part of the Egyptian soul
 * ki – alternative spelling of qi from Japanese
 * la – sixth tone of the diatonic scale
 * li – a unit of distance; also (with initial capital) an ethnic minority in southern China
 * lo – meaning "look!"
 * ma – mother, also used in some dialects to mean "my"
 * me – first-person singular objective-case pronoun; a variant of "mi"; also a concept in Sumerian mythology; also used in some dialects to mean "my"
 * mi – third tone of the diatonic scale
 * mm – expressing satisfaction
 * mo – more
 * mu – a letter in the Greek alphabet; also (with initial capital) the name of hypothetical vanished continent in the Pacific Ocean
 * my – first-person singular possessive determiner, or related with the word "me"
 * na – no, nah
 * né – born with the name of (the male form of "née")
 * no – not any; also a general negative response; no. is also an abbreviation of the word "number" ; also a Classical Japanese musical drama.
 * nu – a letter in the Greek alphabet; also (with initial capital) the god of the ocean in Egyptian mythology; also (with initial capital) an ethnic minority in China
 * Ob – a river in Siberia (one of the largest rivers in the world), also short for obsidian
 * od – an alleged power used to produce mesmerism
 * oe – one; wind (Faroe Islands)
 * of – derived from or belonging to
 * oh – indicating surprise
 * oi – a sub-genre of punk music, or same as oy
 * OK/ok – alright, or approve
 * om – a mystic syllable used by Hindus and Buddhists in various religious rites
 * on – a preposition meaning "above and in contact with"
 * oo – a rare Hawaiian bird (pronounced "oh-oh")
 * or – a conjunction used to indicate an alternative; also a tincture in heraldry
 * os – ora, osar, or a bone
 * ow – indicating sudden pain
 * ox – a bovine mammal with hooves
 * oy – to draw someone's attention
 * pa – father
 * pe – a letter of the Greek alphabet
 * pi – a letter of the Greek alphabet, or a mathematical constant (c/d)
 * po – a chamber pot
 * qi – Chinese life force (chi)
 * Ra – the god of the sun in Egyptian mythology; also an alternative spelling of Roua
 * re – second tone of the diatonic scale; about (often used in titles of responses to Internet messages); also an alternative spelling of Ra
 * Ro – a constructed language of the "philosophical" type (words from similar categories begin with similar letters), invented by the Rev. Edward Powell Foster with his wife
 * Ru – a fertility god in Polynesian mythology
 * sh – shush; keep quiet
 * si – a note in the diatonic scale
 * so – to the amount or degree expressed or understood; also a question asking what logically follows from a statement; also fifth tone of the diatonic scale
 * ta – thank you (Commonwealth)
 * te – inherent character/inner power in Taoism; seventh tone of the diatonic scale
 * ti – a small tree; also the seventh tone of the diatonic scale
 * to – towards
 * Tu – the god of war in Polynesian mythology
 * Ua – the god of rain in Polynesian mythology
 * uh – expressing hesitation
 * Ul – the god of the moon in Polynesian mythology
 * um – expressing hesitation
 * un – referring to a person or one animal
 * up – to increase; a vertical direction opposite of down
 * us – the first person plural objective-case pronoun
 * ut – used to be a musical tone in French solmization system
 * wa – wha
 * we – the first person plural nominative-case pronoun
 * Wi – the god of the sun in Lakota mythology, also with
 * wo – woe
 * Wu – a dialect of the Chinese language
 * wy – the letter Y, alternative spelling of wye
 * xe – a gender-neutral neopronoun
 * xi – a letter in the Greek alphabet
 * xu – ''formally a hundredth of a dong in Vietnamese currency
 * ya – yes; also you
 * ye – you (subject or nominative), the, or yes
 * Yi – a minority language in China
 * yo – used to call attention
 * za – pizza
 * zi – a type of pseudonym used in Imperial China
 * ze – a gender-neutral neopronoun

English use in a foreign phrase
Several more of our two-letter words exist as parts of set phrases imported from other languages.


 * ao – in ao dai (the Vietnamese garment)
 * et – in et cetera, et al
 * id – in id est (the expanded form of i.e.)
 * la – in sao la, a Vietnamese ox of the genus Pseudoryx, first discovered in the 1990s
 * mi – in mi casa, su casa
 * pu – repeated in pu pu platter
 * se – from per se
 * su – in mi casa, su casa
 * vu – as in déjà vu

Abbreviations
Many two-letter words are abbreviations, or apocopations of longer words. They are frequently slang or informal words.


 * ab – an abdominal muscle (slang)
 * ad – an advertisement
 * ag – pertaining to agriculture
 * av – avatar (Internet slang)
 * bi – bisexual (slang)
 * co – clipping of "company"
 * ec – economics (especially after "home")
 * ed – education (informal); also editor
 * ep – episode (slang)
 * eq – equalizer (for music recording)
 * ey – hey
 * fi – fiction; like in sci-fi
 * mo – moment
 * op – operator (slang); also operation; opportunity (as in photo op); optical (as in op art); or opinion (as in op-ed)
 * Oz – nickname for the land of Australia
 * ph – pH (potential for hydrogen; power of hydrogen) a measure of acidity
 * 'za – an abbreviation from the end of pizza

These sorts of lists are useful for some letter games, such as crossword puzzles or anagrams, or in word games, such as Scrabble.

Words acceptable in Scrabble
The following are lists of two letter words allowed in Scrabble (US, UK, and International). See the Wikipedia's Scrabble article for an explanation of the different word lists and their applications.

OSPD - Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary (US)
This chart is based on every two letter word in the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Dictionary (US) []. The 4th edition added five new acceptable two-letter words: FE, KI, OI, QI, and ZA (italicized).

Note that rows C and V and columns C, J, Q, V and Z are completely empty.

CSW - Collins Scrabble Words
For the two-letter words in CSW, see: []