Prefixes and Suffixes That Multiply Your Word Count

Long words look intimidating, but most of them are short words with a prefix stuck on the front or a suffix on the back. UNDERSTANDABLY is UNDER + STAND + ABLE + Y. REPAINTING is RE + PAINT + ING. Learning to see these building blocks is the fastest way to find longer words in Scrabble, crosswords and the Spelling Bee.

We counted how often common beginnings and endings appear across our dictionary to see which matter most.

The most common word endings

Ending	Words in our dictionary ending this way	Example
-S	106,488	WORDS, GAMES
-ED	20,444	PLAYED, SCORED
-ING	18,921	PLAYING, SCORING
-ER	10,887	PLAYER, FASTER
-LY	8,898	QUICKLY, NEATLY
-ERS	8,386	PLAYERS, WINNERS
-NESS	4,351	KINDNESS, DARKNESS
-TION	3,994	ACTION, NATION
-OUS	2,724	FAMOUS, NERVOUS
-EST	2,716	FASTEST, KINDEST
-ABLE	2,420	READABLE, PLAYABLE
-ITY	2,201	CITY, ABILITY
-LESS	1,154	HOPELESS, FEARLESS
-MENT	989	MOVEMENT, PAYMENT
-FUL	539	HOPEFUL, CAREFUL

These counts include every word that ends in those letters, so a few aren't true suffixes (CITY isn't CIT + Y, for example). But the overall picture is clear: S, -ED, -ING and -ER dominate English endings by a huge margin.

Almost four in ten words in our dictionary end in S. That's why the S tile is so valuable in Scrabble, and why the NYT Spelling Bee leaves S out of its puzzles entirely.

The most common word beginnings

Beginning	Words starting this way	Example
RE-	9,008	REPLAY, REWRITE
UN-	7,386	UNDO, UNFAIR
IN-	6,244	INDOOR, INVISIBLE
DE-	5,732	DEFROST, DECODE
DIS-	2,894	DISLIKE, DISAGREE
PRE-	2,502	PREVIEW, PREHEAT
OVER-	2,363	OVERDO, OVERTIME
MIS-	1,755	MISTAKE, MISREAD
OUT-	1,710	OUTRUN, OUTDOOR
NON-	1,708	NONSTOP, NONSENSE
SUB-	1,598	SUBWAY, SUBTITLE
INTER-	1,240	INTERNET, INTERACT
ANTI-	1,007	ANTIBODY, ANTIDOTE

Again, these counts include words that simply start with those letters (READ starts with RE but isn't a prefixed word). Even so, RE- and UN- stand out as the two most productive prefixes in English.

How to use this in word games

Scrabble: look for endings first

When searching your rack for a long word, pull out the most common endings first: -S, -ED, -ING, -ER, -EST. If you hold I, N and G, set them aside and see what four-letter word the rest can make. That's often a seven-letter bingo. Our 7-letter bingo guide explains this method step by step.

Scrabble: front hooks with RE- and UN-

You can't add two letters as a hook, but you can build down from an existing word using these prefixes. If PAINT is on the board, playing RE above it creates REPAINT. The same works with UN (UNDO), DE (DEFROST) and others. Look for open space before words already on the board.

Crosswords: match the clue's form

A crossword clue's grammar tells you which suffix to expect. "Acting without thinking" suggests an -ING answer. "Not possible to read" suggests UN- + -ABLE: UNREADABLE. See our crossword tips for more.

Spelling Bee: chain suffixes

The Bee never uses S, so other endings carry the load. If the honeycomb includes E, D, R, I, N and G, a single root like TRAIN can become TRAINED, TRAINER and TRAINING. Each is worth more than the original four or five letters. See our Spelling Bee strategy.

Suffixes that change spelling

A few suffixes alter the word they attach to. Knowing the patterns helps you spot valid words:

Drop the silent E: MAKE → MAKING, HOPE → HOPING. (But keep it before consonant suffixes: HOPEFUL.)
Double the final consonant: RUN → RUNNING, STOP → STOPPED, BIG → BIGGEST.
Change Y to I: HAPPY → HAPPIER, HAPPINESS; TRY → TRIED.
British and American spellings: -ISE and -IZE both appear (our dictionary has 1,346 words ending in -ISE and 1,140 ending in -IZE), as do -OUR and -OR (COLOUR and COLOR).

Practise spotting building blocks

Pick any long word and split it into prefix, root and suffix. UNBELIEVABLY = UN + BELIEV(E) + ABL(E) + Y.
Take a short root like PLAY, and list every form you can: PLAYS, PLAYED, PLAYING, PLAYER, PLAYERS, PLAYFUL, REPLAY, REPLAYED, OUTPLAY, OVERPLAY, DISPLAY.
Use our word finder: set "ends with" to -ABLE or "starts with" to RE and explore what comes up.