HOUGH is valid in Collins, not in North America — 12 points
It depends on the list you play by. HOUGH is in Collins, used in the UK and most of the world, but it is not in the North American lists — so in a US or Canadian game an opponent can challenge it off the board. Worth 12 points. Words with Friends does accept it.
Which word lists accept HOUGH?
| Official Scrabble Players DictionaryUSA, Canada, Thailand | Not listed |
|---|---|
| Official Tournament and Club Word ListUSA, Canada, Thailand | Not listed |
| Collins Scrabble WordsEnglish in most countries | Valid |
| Words with FriendsZynga word list | Valid |
Word power: 43 / 100
Our own measure of how useful HOUGH is to know. It scores 12 from 5 tiles, takes 4 hooks, and its letters make up 3.8% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for HOUGH
Checked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How HOUGH scores
Face value of the 5 tiles in HOUGH, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| h | 2 | 2 |
| o | 1 | 8 |
| u | 1 | 4 |
| g | 1 | 3 |
Drawing exactly these 5 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 784,245.
What stands out about HOUGH
- HOUGH begins and ends with the same letter.
Counted from the four word lists we hold, not taken from anywhere else. How we calculate things
What does HOUGH mean in Scrabble?
verb
archaichistorical
To disable a person or animal by cutting the tendons behind the knee or hock.
Hough is an old technical term from butchery and warfare alike, naming the act of cutting the hamstring so that a person or an animal can no longer stand or run. The same spelling also names the joint itself, the hock of an animal or the hollow at the back of a human knee, and a butcher's hough is a cut of meat taken from around that joint. Records from Scotland describe raiders who houghed an enemy's cattle and horses rather than driving them away, a tactic meant to cripple rather than steal. Both the verb and the noun trace back to the same old root that also gave English hock.
How HOUGH is used
Now mostly historical or dialectal, met in older accounts of warfare and butchery rather than in ordinary modern speech.
- The raiders houghed the cattle rather than driving them off.
- A butcher trimmed the hough before selling the rest of the leg.
- Soldiers were ordered to hough the enemy's horses before retreating.
- The old text explains hough as the joint behind the knee.
- Few modern readers recognise hough outside a history of siege warfare.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of HOUGH and 5 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Words starting with HOUGH
5 longer words begin with HOUGH.
Words ending in HOUGH
4 words end in HOUGH. Useful as a back hook: play HOUGH onto a word already on the board.
Words with HOUGH inside
Showing 24 of 39 words that contain HOUGH somewhere in the middle. Words that start with HOUGH are listed separately above, so nothing is repeated.
Shorter words from the letters in HOUGH
Common questions about HOUGH
- Is HOUGH valid in Words with Friends?
- Yes. Words with Friends accepts HOUGH, where it scores 12 points. That game keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries.
- How many points is HOUGH worth?
- HOUGH is worth 12 points in Scrabble and 12 points in Words with Friends.
- What does HOUGH mean?
- To disable a person or animal by cutting the tendons behind the knee or hock.
- What letters can be added to HOUGH?
- HOUGH takes 4 hooks: 3 in front and 1 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 5 letters of HOUGH:
Open HOUGH in the Word Finder