Words With No Vowels: Real Words for Scrabble and Puzzles

Most people learn at school that every English word needs a vowel. It's a useful rule of thumb, but it isn't quite true. Our dictionary contains 182 words with no A, E, I, O or U. Most of them rely on Y acting as a vowel, but 32 have no Y either. In word games, these words are a lifeline when your rack is full of consonants.

Words with no vowels at all (not even Y)

These are the true vowel-free words in our dictionary. Many are interjections (sounds people make) or words borrowed from Welsh.

A few explanations:

• CWM is a Welsh word for a bowl-shaped hollow at the head of a mountain valley (also called a cirque). In Welsh, W is a vowel.
• CRWTH is an ancient Celtic stringed instrument, also from Welsh.
• CWTCH is a Welsh word for a cuddle or a cosy place.
• NTH means "to the utmost degree," as in "to the nth degree."
• TSKTSK is the sound of disapproval, and TSKTSKS is its seven-letter plural form, the longest word in our list with no vowels and no Y.
• HM, HMM, SH, SHH, BRR, PST, PSST, PFFT are all interjections.

Many of these are valid in Collins (the international Scrabble list) but not all are accepted in North American play. CWM, NTH, HMM, SHH, BRR, PST, PSST, TSK and TSKTSK are among the most widely accepted.

Words where Y is the only vowel

Here Y does the job of a vowel. These are much more common, and many are everyday words:

RHYTHMS, at seven letters, is the longest common English word without A, E, I, O or U. SYZYGY is a favourite of word lovers: an astronomical term for three bodies lining up (like the Sun, Moon and Earth during an eclipse), with three Ys and no other vowel.

Why do these words exist?

There are three main reasons:

1. Y acting as a vowel. In words like MYTH and GYM, Y makes an "i" sound. In SKY and TRY, it makes an "eye" sound. English spelling treats Y as a consonant at the start of words (YES, YARD) and often as a vowel elsewhere.
2. Welsh borrowings. In Welsh, W and Y are vowels, so words like CWM and CRWTH are perfectly normal there.
3. Interjections. Sounds like HMM, SHH and BRR aren't really "words" in the ordinary sense, but dictionaries record them because people write them.

Using vowel-free words in Scrabble

The most common bad rack in Scrabble is too many consonants. Vowel-free words let you play several consonants without needing a vowel, which can save you from exchanging tiles (and losing a turn).

• Short plays: HM, SH and MM are two-letter words that fit almost anywhere.
• Three-letter workhorses: NTH, TSK, HMM, SHH and CWM can be played next to other words for parallel scores.
• With a Y: if you hold a Y, a whole range opens up: TRY, SPY, MYTH, NYMPH, LYMPH, CRYPT.

Watch for scoring chances too. SYZYGY uses a Z and three Ys (Scrabble sets have only two Ys, so you'd need a blank). PSYCH and NYMPH pack in 4-point letters for solid scores on premium squares.

A note on "vowel" definitions

Some people count W and Y as "sometimes vowels." By that definition, a word like CWM does have a vowel. In this article we use the usual word-game definition: the vowels are A, E, I, O and U, and everything else, including Y and W, counts as a consonant. That's also how most word-game tools, including ours, define them.

Find more

Use our word finder to explore further, or type a consonant-heavy rack into the unscrambler to see what's possible. You might be surprised.

Related reading

• Words with all five vowels: the opposite problem.
• 3-letter Scrabble words, including more vowel dumps and consonant-only plays.
• Palindrome words