Words Ending in A

3,164 Words Ending in A — English's Biggest Vowel Ending

A-ending words form the largest vowel-ending group in English, and they tell a story about where our vocabulary comes from. Latin gave us AGENDA, DATA, FORMULA, and PROPAGANDA. Greek contributed DRAMA, DILEMMA, STIGMA, and ASTHMA. Italian sent PASTA, OPERA, VILLA, and PIAZZA. Spanish delivered FIESTA, PLAZA, SALSA, and SIERRA. Arabic provided ALGEBRA, HENNA, and SOFA. Even Sanskrit shows up through YOGA, KARMA, and NIRVANA. The sheer diversity of source languages is what makes this group so large — over 3,100 words, ranging from the two-letter AA (a type of rough lava) to fifteen-letter scientific terms.

A fact that helps in crossword solving: many A-ending words are plurals that don't look like plurals. CRITERIA is the plural of CRITERION. PHENOMENA is the plural of PHENOMENON. BACTERIA is the plural of BACTERIUM. When a crossword clue uses a plural indicator but the answer doesn't end in S, an A-ending Latin or Greek plural should be your first guess. In Scrabble, the two-letter A-enders give you flexibility: AA, BA, FA, HA, KA, LA, MA, NA, PA, TA, and YA are all valid. AA is especially useful — it's a real geological term and lets you play parallel to almost any existing word. One quick tip: if your rack is vowel-heavy with multiple A tiles, don't panic. Words like ABRACADABRA, BANANA, ALPACA, and PIAZZA eat up excess vowels while scoring respectably. See words ending in O and words ending in I for the other major vowel-ending groups, and words ending in ZA for a focused subset that uses the high-value Z tile.

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