Prefixes and Suffixes: The Endings That Build Most Words
English builds thousands of words from a small set of beginnings and endings. If you can spot them on your rack, you can turn a handful of letters into several words, and if you can add them to words on the board, you can score twice. This guide uses the full ENABLE list to show which ones matter most.
The most useful endings
The table counts every word in the list that ends with those letters. It includes some words where the letters are simply part of the word (for example ring ends in -ING), so treat the numbers as a guide to how common each ending is.
| Ending | Words | Usually means |
|---|---|---|
| -S | 65,475 | plurals and verb forms |
| -ED | 13,329 | past tense |
| -ING | 12,564 | present participles |
| -ER | 7,487 | one who, or comparative |
| -LY | 6,375 | adverbs |
| -NESS | 2,872 | a state or quality |
| -TION | 2,585 | an action or result |
| -ABLE | 1,477 | able to be done |
| -LESS | 649 | without |
| -FUL | 332 | full of |
The standout is the letter S: 65,475 words, or about 38% of the whole list, end in S. That is why a spare S is so valuable in Scrabble. It turns almost any noun into a plural, and a verb into its third-person form, so it can add points to a word already on the board while you play your own word across it.
The most useful beginnings
| Beginning | Words | Usually means |
|---|---|---|
| RE- | 6,681 | again |
| UN- | 3,856 | not, or reverse |
| IN- | 4,513 | not, or in |
| PRE- | 1,716 | before |
| DIS- | 1,691 | not, or apart |
| MIS- | 1,236 | wrongly |
| OVER- | 1,676 | too much |
| NON- | 1,566 | not |
Beginnings are less flexible than endings, because they rarely work as hooks on the front of a word. They are most useful when you have several letters that fit together, such as R, E, U and N: you may be able to build re- or un- words.
How to use this at the board
- Look for the ending first. If your rack has an I, N and G, check whether you can build a word that ends in -ING. There are 12,564 of them in the list.
- Add to what is already there. Words on the board often accept -S, -ED, -ER or -ING, which gives you a second word for free.
- Check the rest of the rack. Take the ending out and ask what is left. Four letters plus -ED is just a four-letter word problem.
Practise with the solver
Use the Ends with filter in WordJumbler to see which words end in a given ending from your letters, or the Starts with filter to look at beginnings. Our filters guide explains how to combine them.