Five-Letter Words With No Vowels
There are 36 words in this list; 21 of them are common words.
Type your own letters to find only the words you can make, or leave it empty to open this list in the word finder.
It is possible to spell a five-letter word without any of the five standard vowels, as long as a Y is willing to stand in. The words on this page are exactly that: every five-letter entry in our dictionary that contains no A, E, I, O or U. Most of them lean on Y as the only vowel sound, such as CRYPT, LYMPH, NYMPH and TRYST, and a few come from Welsh or from onomatopoeia. They are a favourite topic for daily five-letter puzzles because a guess with no vowels feels impossible until you see the answer. For tile games they are useful in a different way: when your rack is all consonants, one of these words can clear it in a single move. Check the list, then try the five-letter finder if you have a few known letters and want to narrow it down further.
All 36 words
- myths13 points
- lymph15 points
- nymph15 points
- psych15 points
- hymns13 points
- lynch13 points
- crypt12 points
- dryly12 points
- slyly11 points
- cysts10 points
- pygmy16 points
- gypsy14 points
- shyly14 points
- wryly14 points
- syncs10 points
- flyby16 points
- glyph14 points
- myrrh13 points
- sylph13 points
- tryst8 points
- synth11 points
- crwth13 points
- ghyll12 points
- xylyl18 points
- mythy16 points
- thymy16 points
- phpht15 points
- xysts15 points
- stymy13 points
- synch13 points
- syphs13 points
- typps12 points
- wynds12 points
- wynns11 points
- byrls10 points
- rynds9 points
Quick facts
- Total words: 36
- By usage: 10 very common, 11 common, 15 rare
Highest scoring (classic tiles)
- xylyl 18
- flyby 16
- mythy 16
- pygmy 16
- thymy 16
- lymph 15
- nymph 15
- phpht 15
- psych 15
- xysts 15
Most common
- myths
- lymph
- nymph
- psych
- hymns
- lynch
- crypt
- dryly
- slyly
- cysts
Definitions
- lymph (noun)
- A thin coagulable fluid (similar to plasma but) containing white blood cells (lymphocytes) and chyle; is conveyed to the blood stream by lymphatic vessels.
- nymph (noun)
- (classical mythology) a minor nature goddess usually depicted as a beautiful maiden.
- lynch (verb)
- Kill without legal sanction.
- crypt (noun)
- A cellar or vault or underground burial chamber (especially beneath a church).
How to use this page
Browse the list for study, or search it with your rack to find plays. When the list is long, the page shows the first few hundred words and a button loads the rest.
Tips
A word list is also a study tool. Reading through the five-letter words with no vowels once or twice is enough to make the unusual ones familiar, and familiarity is what lets you spot a play under time pressure. Try covering the list and writing down as many as you can, then compare. Use the definitions on this page to attach meaning to the words you did not know, since a word with a meaning sticks far better than a string of letters. Return to the list after a few days and repeat.
Questions
How many five-letter words with no vowels are there?
Our dictionary has 36 five-letter words with no vowels, of which 21 are common English words. The count comes from the public-domain ENABLE list, so it can differ slightly from the dictionary a particular game uses.
What is the highest-scoring word among the five-letter words with no vowels?
XYLYL scores 18 points with classic tile values, ignoring board multipliers. The full top ten is in the quick facts above; switch the tile set on the search tool if you play with different letter values.