Last Updated on October 20, 2019 by

An Important Update

The Scrabble 3 To Make 4 list is one of the ten key word lists for the game of Scrabble. These lists welcome new players to an engrossing pastime and enhance the pleasure of recreational players. Scrabble rewards planning and teaches new words. And it’s also a great social pastime.

The 3 to make 4 list shows all the single letters that can be added to a three-letter word to form a valid four-letter word. For example, you can modify the word AIM by adding an M at the beginning to make MAIM. Or, you can add an S at the end to make AIMS.

Tournament players commit word lists like this to memory. However, when friends play “Friendly Scrabble,” they use word lists to have the joy of making a higher score. And sometimes they learn new words as well!

Errors in the 3 To Make 4 List

I owe today’s blog to Justin Donoho, who pointed out to me a clear omission from my 3 to make 4 list: the absence of PAP + A = PAPA.

This list relies on the latest 6^th Edition of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary. I created this 3 to make 4 list – the only one I know of – using Excel. Large spreadsheets extract the desired words for each list. Therefore, how could a perfectly good word fall through the cracks?

As a result of Justin’s note, I went back to the spreadsheets and found two big errors:

• I use a complex formula to find add-on letters for the end of three-letter words. Apparently, after installing that formula I inserted two columns and copied the formula to the right. The resulting change in the formula omitted every word that depended on adding an A or a B to its end. Thus not only did the list leave off PAPA: the list also omitted BARB, COLA and many other words!
• When I assembled the final words into a printable list, I discovered two typos in the earlier list. Specifically, it omitted the three-letter words AZO and VUM and their four-letter derivatives (AZON and OVUM).

Thus Justin’s sharp eye and his willingness to speak up unlocked a large number of errors, hiding in plain sight. My quick count says that the new list adds 129 missing words. Thank you, Justin!

3 To Make 4 List – 2019 Edition

Enough of the background. If you’re a Scrabble player, you’re reading this post because you want a copy of the new Scrabble 3 To Make 4 List, which is attached HERE.

To protect readers who happen upon my Scrabble 2018 post with its 10 lists, I updated that blog with the newest 3 to make 4 list. Therefore that blog now contains the newest version of all ten lists.

If you’re a Scrabble player, I wish you many elegant and wonderful plays with the help of the 3 to make 4 list. And if you’re not a player, perhaps you should give it a try!

Image Credit: Photo of Franklin Mint Collector’s Edition Scrabble by Art Chester