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3-letter words ending in B

57 three-letter words ending in B are valid in tournament play, from the everyday JOB and WEB to SOB, ORB and NAB.

57 wordsTop pick JOBHighest score JOB 12

25 of 57 are everyday words (44%). A friendly list: most players will know the top picks.

E ends the most 3-letter words (108); Q ends the fewest (1). B ranks #11 of 26. The bar under each letter shows the size of its list.

Common words 25 · most-used first

All valid words 57

A to Z. Includes rare and Collins-only words. Linked tiles open the word's meaning, score and rhymes.

Letters by positionIn 25% of these words the 2nd letter is O.
1st letter
  1. D9%
  2. N9%
  3. F7%
2nd letter
  1. O25%
  2. U19%
  3. A19%

Highest-scoring words

Scrabble and Words With Friends points, before board bonuses
Score spreadMost of these words score 5 in Scrabble; JOB tops the list with 12. Scores before board bonuses.
  1. 55 points: 22 words
  2. 6 points: 9 words
  3. 77 points: 11 words
  4. 8 points: 9 words
  5. 99 points: 3 words
  6. 10 points: 0 words
  7. 1111 points: 0 words
  8. 12 points: 3 words
WordScrabbleWords With FriendsDictionaries
JOB1215All three
JAB1215All three
JIB1215All three
KAB910All three
KOB910All three
KEB910Collins only
WEB89All three
HUB89All three
FAB89Collins · NWL
FOB89All three
HOB88All three
FIB89All three

B is not a natural ending for a short English word. It closes 57 of the 1,333 three-letter entries, barely one in 23, while E and S close 108 each. The upside is familiarity: 25 of the 57 count as common English and the best of them scores 12.

The 57 three-letter words ending in B

  • B closes 57 of the 1,333 three-letter words.
  • E and S close 108 each, so B is only half as productive as the leaders.
  • 46 of the 57 end in a vowel plus B: -OB 14, -AB 11, -UB 11 and -IB 10.
  • job, jab and jib score 12 each, the best in the group.
  • 25 of the 57 count as common English.
  • Collins takes all 57 entries, NWL2023 only 53.

Which B-ending word scores highest?

job, jab and jib all reach 12, carried by the 8-point J. kab, kob and keb follow at 9, then web, hub, fab and fob at 8 each.

The average is 6.6 against 6.3 for three-letter words as a whole, so the ending sits slightly above par. That lift comes from a handful of expensive openings rather than from the B itself, which is worth only 3.

Nothing here is truly expensive. The best three-letter play anywhere reaches 30 points, and no B word comes close to that.

Why so few short words end in B

English prefers E, S and T in the final square, and B trails all three badly at 57 entries. Only about one three-letter word in 23 closes that way.

What does end in B is usually a plain Anglo-Saxon word: job, web, sub, lab, rub, tub, cab and rib. Read the middle letter and you can often guess the whole word, which is why the group is easy to remember.

Where the dictionaries differ

Note

NWL2023 accepts 53 of the 57 words, so ABB, DOB, GUB and KEB are Collins-only in North America. ENABLE drops FAB as well. Collins carries the full set.

Questions people ask

How many three-letter words end in B?
57 of the 1,333 three-letter words, roughly one in 23. E and S close 108 each and T 93, so B counts as one of the rarer final letters in the short-word table.
What is the highest-scoring three-letter word ending in B?
job, jab and jib all score 12 points, each lifted by the 8-point J. kab, kob and keb follow at 9, and web, hub, fab and fob reach 8.
Which three-letter B words are missing from NWL2023?
ABB, DOB, GUB and KEB. The other 53 words in the group are accepted by both Collins and NWL2023, so only 4 entries separate the two lists.

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