VON Endings: Just Two, But Worth Knowing
English has exactly two common words ending in -VON: DEVON and ELEVON. DEVON is a breed of cattle (also a county in England), and ELEVON is an aircraft control surface that combines the functions of an elevator and aileron. That's it. This makes -VON one of the shortest ending lists in the crossword solver's toolkit, and that extreme scarcity is actually useful. If you're solving a crossword and the answer ends in -VON, you've got it narrowed to two options immediately.
DEVON shows up in crossword puzzles clued as either the English county or the cattle breed (also called North Devon or Red Ruby). ELEVON is rarer but appears in aviation-themed puzzles. In Scrabble, DEVON scores 9 points and ELEVON scores 9 points — neither is spectacular, but ELEVON's unusual letter combination (E-L-E-V-O-N) can fill tricky board positions. The word was coined in the 1940s as a portmanteau of elevator and aileron, making it one of the newer words in this project.
Since -VON is so limited, you'll want to branch out. For other sparse endings that help with crossword elimination, try words ending in GRY, which is famously tiny. words starting with E covers ELEVON's neighborhood, and words starting with A has related aviation vocabulary. words starting with H includes cattle breed terminology if you're on a farming-themed puzzle.
FAQ
What is an ELEVON?
An ELEVON is a hinged control surface on an aircraft that serves as both an elevator (controlling pitch/nose up-down) and an aileron (controlling roll/banking). It's used on delta-wing and flying-wing aircraft where separate control surfaces aren't practical. The Space Shuttle used elevons. In Scrabble, it scores 9 points. For more aviation words, browse words starting with JE where JET leads the list.
Is DEVON always capitalized?
As the English county name, DEVON is always capitalized and wouldn't count in Scrabble. But as a cattle breed, lowercase devon is accepted in some dictionaries. Check your game's specific word list. SOWPODS accepts DEVON lowercase. For more proper-noun-that-doubles-as-common-word situations, explore words starting with B where similar cases exist.