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3-letter words ending in V

Just 16 three-letter words end in V, and nearly all of them are clipped or slang forms.

16 wordsTop pick REVHighest score FAV 9

7 of 16 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). V ranks #24 of 26. The bar under each letter shows the size of its list.

Best words to play first 16 · most-used first

  • REV6
  • GOV7
  • DEV7
  • DIV7
  • NAV6
  • FAV9
  • LEV6
  • LUV6
  • SAV6
  • SOV6
  • LAV6
  • SEV6
  • PAV8
  • GUV7
  • VAV9
  • TAV6
All valid words 16

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

  • DEV7
  • DIV7
  • FAV9
  • GOV7
  • GUV7
  • LAV6
  • LEV6
  • LUV6
  • NAV6
  • PAV8
  • REV6
  • SAV6
  • SEV6
  • SOV6
  • TAV6
  • VAV9
Letters by positionIn 44% of these words the 2nd letter is A.
1st letter
  1. L19%
  2. S19%
  3. D13%
2nd letter
  1. A44%
  2. E25%
  3. U13%

Highest-scoring words

Scrabble and Words With Friends points, before board bonuses
WordScrabbleWords With FriendsDictionaries
FAV910NWL only
VAV911All three
PAV810Collins only
GOV79Collins only
DEV78All three
DIV78Collins only
GUV710All three
REV67All three
NAV68NWL only
LEV68All three
LUV69All three
SAV67Collins only

E and S each close 108 three-letter words and T closes 93, so a V ending is rare: 16 words, ahead of only J and Q. Every one puts a vowel directly before the V, and seven end in -AV. Seven count as common English, a 44 per cent share against 68 per cent for the L ending.

Sixteen V endings at a glance

  • 16 three-letter words end in V; only the J ending on 3 and the Q ending on 1 are smaller.
  • Seven end in -AV: nav, fav, sav, lav, pav, tav and vav.
  • Every one of the 16 places a vowel immediately before the V.
  • FAV and VAV tie on 9 points, PAV reaches 8, and four words share 7.
  • ENABLE lists 8 of the 16, so half the group fails there.

Why the list is mostly clippings

Eight of the 16 are shortenings of longer words: rev, gov, dev, div, nav, fav, luv and guv. The shape repeats every time, with a long word losing its tail and keeping its first three letters.

The rest arrive from elsewhere. vav and tav are Hebrew letters, lev names a unit of currency, and sav, sov, sev and pav round out a group with no single origin.

V is worth four, so the scores hold up

That single heavy tile lifts these short words well above the usual return. The average here is 6.8, against 6.3 for three-letter words as a group.

Dictionary cover splits the group three ways. Collins takes 13, NWL2023 takes 11 and ENABLE only 8, so div, gov, pav, sav and sov need Collins, while fav, nav and sev are the three NWL2023 accepts without it.

A vowel in front of V is the whole trick

Tip

Learn rev, gov and dev first, since they turn up in conversation and stick. vav and tav come next: both share the -av tail of this ending.

Questions people ask

How many three-letter words end in V?
Sixteen. Only the J ending, with three words, and the Q ending, with one, are smaller at this length, and every one of the sixteen places a vowel before the V.
Which three-letter words ending in V score best?
fav and vav tie on 9 points, pav reaches 8, and gov, dev, div and guv share 7. The remaining nine sit on 6, so the spread across the group is narrow.
Can you play three-letter V words in ENABLE?
Half of them, yes. ENABLE takes 8 of the 16, while Collins holds 13 and NWL2023 holds 11, so confirm the word list your game uses before you commit the tile.

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