Words Starting With TH

TH Words: English's Signature Sound

No other two-letter combo defines English quite like TH. It produces two distinct sounds — the voiced TH in THIS, THAT, and THE, and the voiceless TH in THINK, THICK, and THRONE. Old English had a dedicated letter for this sound called thorn, which looked like a 'p' with an ascender. When printing presses arrived from continental Europe, they lacked the thorn character, so printers substituted Y — which is why antique signs reading "Ye Olde Shoppe" were always pronounced "The Old Shop." The TH combination appears in roughly 3.5% of all English text, making it the single most common consonant pairing in the language.

For word game players, TH- words are everywhere but unevenly distributed. Short TH words (THE, THY, THO, THAW) are crossword staples, while longer entries like THRESHOLD, THROMBOSIS, and THERAPEUTIC show up in harder grids. In Scrabble, both T and H are modest tiles (1 and 4 points respectively), so TH words score best when they're long enough for bingo bonuses or land on premium squares. Words like THUMPING or THRIVING use common letters alongside TH, making them realistic bingo candidates. Check words starting with PH for another digraph that borrows a consonant's identity, or browse words starting with Q for high-value plays that pair well on the board.

Solver tip: if a crossword clue references pointing, demonstrating, or indicating direction, the answer very likely starts with TH — THIS, THAT, THERE, THOSE, THUS. These demonstrative pronouns are among the oldest words in English, surviving nearly unchanged from Anglo-Saxon times. For more prefix-heavy word families, see words starting with UN.

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