CIAO is a valid Scrabble word — 6 points
Yes. CIAO is accepted by every list we check: Collins, the North American lists and Words with Friends. It scores 6 points in Scrabble and 7 in Words with Friends.
Which word lists accept CIAO?
| Official Scrabble Players DictionaryUSA, Canada, Thailand | Valid |
|---|---|
| Official Tournament and Club Word ListUSA, Canada, Thailand | Valid |
| Collins Scrabble WordsEnglish in most countries | Valid |
| Words with FriendsZynga word list | Valid |
Word power: 31 / 100
Our own measure of how useful CIAO is to know. It scores 6 from 4 tiles, takes 0 hooks, and its letters make up 7.0% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for CIAO
No single letter turns CIAO into another word.
How CIAO scores
Face value of the 4 tiles in CIAO, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| c | 1 | 2 |
| i | 1 | 9 |
| a | 1 | 9 |
| o | 1 | 8 |
Drawing exactly these 4 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 3,026.
What stands out about CIAO
- CIAO runs three vowels in a row, which almost no English word does.
Counted from the four word lists we hold, not taken from anywhere else. How we calculate things
What does CIAO mean in Scrabble?
interjection
informal
An informal Italian word used in English as a friendly greeting or farewell.
Borrowed from Italian, ciao works both when meeting someone and when leaving, unlike English hello and goodbye, which are used only one way each. It keeps its casual, friendly tone in English and appears mainly in relaxed speech and writing rather than formal contexts.
How CIAO is used
Informal and international; common in casual speech across many languages, including English, for both greeting and parting.
- She waved and called out ciao as she left the party.
- He answered the phone with a cheerful ciao instead of hello.
- Ciao, see you again next week, she said with a smile.
- The waiter said ciao to every regular customer who left the cafe.
- They ended the video call with a quick ciao.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of CIAO and 5 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Shorter words from the letters in CIAO
Common questions about CIAO
- Is CIAO valid in Words with Friends?
- Yes. Words with Friends accepts CIAO, where it scores 7 points. That game keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries.
- How many points is CIAO worth?
- CIAO is worth 6 points in Scrabble and 7 points in Words with Friends.
- What does CIAO mean?
- An informal Italian word used in English as a friendly greeting or farewell.
- What letters can be added to CIAO?
- No single letter can be added to CIAO to make another word.
Every word you can build from the 4 letters of CIAO:
Open CIAO in the Word Finder