Yes. ZOO is a valid word.
ZOO is valid in the North American word list used for the Scrabble board game and other crossword tile games.
ZOO 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 ZOO
ZOO is a park where animals are kept for people to see, and any noisy, chaotic place; its plural is ZOOS. ZOO pairs the Z with two O tiles, a neat way to clear a doubled vowel while scoring the Z. ZOOM and ZOON both hook off the end.
Settle the next one at the table: score your game free in Tileside →
ZOO scores 12 points
Before any bonus squares: Z 10 + O 1 + O 1 = 12. On a double-word square that's 24, on a triple-word 36, and every letter bonus under one of these tiles is applied first.
Example: ZOO as the first play
Later in the game, put the Z on a 3L square and ZOO is worth 32 before any word bonus.
Hooks: one tile makes a new word
Longer words from ZOO
Other forms of ZOO (1):
- ZOOSform of ZOO: the facility where wild animals are housed for exhibition
Words that start with ZOO:
Change one tile
Swap any one letter of ZOO and these are still words:
Same letters, other words
No other word in the list uses exactly the letters Z, O and O.
Add one tile: words from these letters plus one more
ZOO + B
- BOZOa man who is a stupid incompetent fool
ZOO + E
- OOZEto flow or leak out slowly
ZOO + N
ZOO + R
- ORZOpasta shaped like pearls of barley
ZOO + S
- ZOOSform of ZOO: the facility where wild animals are housed for exhibition
ZOO + U
- OUZOa Greek liqueur
ZOO + Y
- OOZYleaking out slowly
Memory tip
ZOO is where the animals live. Add an M for ZOOM or an S for ZOOS.
On these lists
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.
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.