Yes. AD is a valid word.
AD is valid in the North American word list used for the Scrabble board game and other crossword tile games.
AD is in the NASPA Word List 2023 (NWL2023), the North American list that Tileside uses for challenges and the one used in club and tournament play.
About AD
AD is short for advertisement, the everyday kind on a billboard or a web page. It is one of the most hookable two-letter words: letters in front make BAD, CAD, DAD, FAD, GAD, HAD, LAD, MAD, PAD, RAD, SAD, TAD and WAD.
Settle the next one at the table: score your game free in Tileside →
AD scores 3 points
Before any bonus squares: A 1 + D 2 = 3. On a double-word square that's 6, on a triple-word 9, and every letter bonus under one of these tiles is applied first.
Example: AD as the first play
Later in the game, put the D on a 3L square and AD is worth 7 before any word bonus.
Hooks: one tile makes a new word
In front of AD (13):
- BADhaving undesirable or negative qualities
- CADsomeone who is morally reprehensible
- DADan informal term for a father
- FADan interest followed with exaggerated zeal
- GADa sharp prod fixed to a rider's heel and used to urge a horse onward
- HADform of HAVE: have or possess, either in a concrete or an abstract sense
- LADa boy or man
- MADroused to anger
After AD (4):
Place that one tile so it also forms a word in the other direction and both words score.
Longer words from AD
Other forms of AD (1):
- ADSform of AD: a public promotion of some product or service
Words that start with AD:
- ADDSform of ADD: make an addition (to)
- ADITa nearly horizontal passage from the surface into a mine
- ADOSform of ADO: a rapid active commotion
- ADZEan edge tool used to cut and shape wood
- ADAGEa condensed but memorable saying embodying some important fact of experience that is taken as true by many people
- ADAPTmake fit for, or change to suit a new purpose
- ADBOT
- ADDAXlarge antelope with lightly spiraled horns of desert regions of northern Africa
Change one tile
Swap any one letter of AD and these are still words:
Same letters, other words
These use exactly the letters of AD:
- DAdad; father
Add one tile: words from these letters plus one more
AD + C
- CADsomeone who is morally reprehensible
AD + F
- FADan interest followed with exaggerated zeal
AD + H
AD + I
- AIDgive help or assistance
AD + K
- DAKEast Indian tree bearing a profusion of intense vermilion velvet-textured blooms and yielding a yellow dye
Memory tip
AD is an advertisement. Turn it around for DA (dad), and add a D for ADD or an O for ADO when you need a three-letter play.
On these lists
Other two-letter words starting with A
Check words at the table, free
Tileside keeps score, checks words like this one during a challenge, tracks the tiles left in the bag and times turns. It runs in your phone's browser with no account and works offline.
Tileside checks words against the North American list, the NASPA Word List 2023. Your group's chosen dictionary always wins. Playing the international (Collins) list? Turn on its 20 extra two-letter words in Setup.
Word list: NASPA Word List 2023, used under license. NASPA Word List 2023 Edition © NASPA 2023. The copy included in this app is licensed for personal use. You may not use it for any commercial purposes.
Works with the Scrabble board game, played at the table. Tileside is an independent product, not affiliated with or endorsed by the makers of Scrabble.