Is ADIEU a valid word?

ADIEU is a French word for goodbye, used in English too; its plurals are ADIEUS and ADIEUX. With four vowels, A, I, E and U, and only a D, it is a famous rack cleaner, and it's valid, so a challenge against it fails. Many people also use it as a first guess in word puzzles for the same reason: it tests four vowels at once. Its French roots mean roughly “to God”, the way people once parted for a long time. In a game it is a farewell to an awkward rack. Players who know it keep a D on the rack a little longer, waiting for the vowels to line up.

Before any bonus squares: A 1 + D 2 + I 1 + E 1 + U 1 = 6. On a double-word square that's 12, on a triple-word 18, and every letter bonus under one of these tiles is applied first.

Later in the game, put the D on a 3L square and ADIEU is worth 10 before any word bonus.

Place that one tile so it also forms a word in the other direction and both words score.

No other word in the list uses exactly the letters A, D, I, E and U.

ADIEU is French for goodbye. Four vowels and a D.

• Vowel-heavy words

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.

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.