Scrabble Game Consonant Words Without Vowels

Word game fans know that the letter E is the most common letter in the English language.  And every student knows that you need vowels to make up words.  Right?  Think again.  There are numerous words with consonants only.  You may want to revisit the definition of consonant to be sure.  The Free Online Dictionary says

1. A speech sound produced by a partial or complete obstruction of the air stream by any of various constrictions of the speech organs, such as (p), (f), (r), (w), and (h).

2. A letter or character representing such a speech sound.

This is a more accurate departure from the traditional understanding which shows the root of consonant which comes from Latin meaning "sounding with" or "sounding together", the idea being that consonants don't sound on their own, but only occur with a nearby vowel.  The modern linguistic understanding as shown above defines them in terms of vocal tract constrictions.  Students of voice and speech will need to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet in order to master the many sounds of consonants and vowels in the English language.

Meanwhile back at the Scrabble Word Game ranch.  Do you panic when the Scrabble bag is empty and you have the letters CWTHR on your rack?  Read on. 

This hub will help you to score points without consonants when playing Scrabble whether any of the online versions such as Facebook Scrabble, Yahoo Literati, or Lexulous; or on your regular Scrabble word game board.

Fact, there are consonant word lists all over the internet such as http://www.tnellen.com/ted/scrabble/scrabble_words_others.html

I invite you to join me in a little quiz with some of the consonant words without vowels.

Here is my personal quiz for you. Honestly, how many of the following words could you guess the meanings for right off the top of your head? I am going to make some rough guesses right here in this article and then check them.

BRRR

CYST

GLYCYLS

LYNX

MYRRH

NYMPH

PSYCH

PYGMY

SHYLY

STYMY

SYLPH

SYNC

TSK

WRYLY

WYCH

WYNDS

WYNN

XYLYL

XYST

ZZZ

Now try to look at my list here and see if you can do better. Maybe you scored higher than I did. Or not. Just enjoy your Scrabble games. These days more often than not, you may join me for a game of Scrabble at Facebook Scrabble Worldwide. Sorry, my North American friends, the Facebook social media site does not permit us to play on the same Scrabble app.

For this quiz I have used the Hasbro Online Dictionary.

My score looks like 10 ½ out of 20.  I have used the colour code of black for correct, red for incorrect, and green for half point.  I was tough on myself because I really should take full points for pygmy and myrrh, but I want to keep the standard high.

How well did you score?