Is YU a valid word?

YU is a Chinese word for jade, the green stone carved into jewelry and art for thousands of years. Collins players use it for the 4-point Y next to a U. Players of the North American list can use YUM, YUK or YUP instead. Nobles of the Han dynasty were even buried in suits made of small jade plates.

Before any bonus squares: Y 4 + U 1 = 5. On a double-word square that's 10, on a triple-word 15, and every letter bonus under one of these tiles is applied first.

Later in the game, put the Y on a 3L square and YU is worth 13 before any word bonus.

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

Swap any one letter of YU and these are still words:

No other word in the list uses exactly the letters Y and U.

YU is jade, the green stone. It is valid only in the Collins list.

• Two-letter words

• YA
• YE
• YO

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.

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.