Hooks, Prefixes and Suffixes
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A hook is a single letter you can add to the front or back of a word to make another word, like adding S to RATE to make RATES. Prefixes and suffixes are the same idea with longer pieces, such as UN- or -ING. In crossword-style tile games, hooks let one play form two words at once, so knowing them opens up many more places on the board. Every example here comes from Letterpile's word list. Words come from the open ENABLE word list. Different games use different dictionaries, so always check the rules of your game.
Front hooks and back hooks
A front hook goes before the word; a back hook goes after it. Here are all the hooks in the list for a few short words:
| Word | Front hooks | Back hooks |
|---|---|---|
ARE | B C D F H M P R T W Y | A S |
AT | B C E F G H K L M O P Q R S T V W | E T |
ATE | B C D F G H L M P R S T | S |
LAP | C F S | S |
RATE | C G I O P U | D L R S |
So AT with a front hook B gives BAT, and with a back hook E gives ATE. A single word can have many hooks or none.
Which letters hook most often
Counting every word of three letters or more that is another word plus one letter:
| Most common back hooks | Words made | Most common front hooks | Words made |
|---|---|---|---|
| S | 48,153 | S | 2,043 |
| D | 5,084 | P | 1,316 |
| R | 1,822 | C | 980 |
| Y | 1,610 | B | 768 |
| E | 1,349 | T | 765 |
S is by far the most common back hook, mainly because of plurals and verb forms. Front hooks are spread more evenly across letters.
Hooks in play
Imagine RATE is on the board and you hold an S. Playing a word down through the square after RATE makes RATES as well as your new word, and you score both. Placing words alongside each other works the same way: each pair of touching letters must form a word, which is where the two-letter words come in.
Some short words take no one-letter hook at either end. In Letterpile's list that is true of MY and XU. Knowing which words can't be extended is just as useful, because it tells you which spots on a board are safe or blocked.
Not every word takes an S
It's tempting to assume any noun or verb can take an S hook, but the list is less generous than that. Of the 962 three-letter words Letterpile shows, 213 have no S back hook in the list, for example AAS, ABS, ADS, ADZ, AFF and AFT. Adjectives, prepositions, interjections and words already ending in S usually can't be pluralized, and some nouns form their plurals in other ways. Before you rely on an S hook, check it.
Prefixes
Prefixes add meaning at the front: UN- often means “not”, RE- means “again”. Many prefixed words are a shorter word with the prefix added, but not all: plenty of words just start with the same letters. The table counts every word starting with each prefix in the list, and how many leave another word when the prefix is removed.
| Prefix | Words starting with it | Still a word without it |
|---|---|---|
| UN- | 3,856 | 3,078 |
| RE- | 6,674 | 4,230 |
| PRE- | 1,716 | 1,116 |
| DIS- | 1,690 | 1,079 |
| MIS- | 1,235 | 1,097 |
| NON- | 1,566 | 1,511 |
| OUT- | 1,295 | 1,246 |
| OVER- | 1,675 | 1,649 |
| SUB- | 1,041 | 727 |
| ANTI- | 785 | 655 |
Suffixes
Suffixes change a word's grammar: -S and -ES make plurals, -ED and -ING make verb forms, -LY usually makes adverbs, -NESS makes nouns. They are the main reason word lists contain so many long words.
| Suffix | Words ending with it | Still a word without it |
|---|---|---|
| -ING | 12,531 | 6,530 |
| -ED | 13,299 | 5,975 |
| -LY | 6,374 | 4,458 |
| -ER | 7,465 | 2,597 |
| -EST | 1,807 | 392 |
| -NESS | 2,871 | 2,259 |
| -FUL | 332 | 299 |
| -LESS | 647 | 629 |
| -TION | 2,583 | 120 |
| -ABLE | 1,476 | 641 |
| -MENT | 616 | 457 |
| -OUS | 1,201 | 213 |
| -ISH | 554 | 271 |
Each prefix and suffix links to its own page with a short explanation and the full list.
Tips
- Learn the S hooks of short words. Most nouns and verbs take S, but not all; the exceptions are worth noticing.
- Watch for words that end in a vowel. They often take a back hook such as D, R, S or N.
- Don't trust looks. A word that seems to take a prefix may not be in the list with it. Check with the Word Unscrambler using “use every letter”, or in your game.