LOY is valid in Collins, not in North America — 6 points
It depends on the list you play by. LOY 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 6 points. Words with Friends does not accept it either.
Which word lists accept LOY?
| 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 | Not listed |
Word power: 39 / 100
Our own measure of how useful LOY is to know. It scores 6 from 3 tiles, takes 3 hooks, and its letters make up 4.7% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for LOY
Checked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How LOY scores
Face value of the 3 tiles in LOY, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| l | 1 | 4 |
| o | 1 | 8 |
| y | 1 | 2 |
Drawing exactly these 3 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 2,527.
What does LOY mean in Scrabble?
noun
Irishhistorical
A long, narrow Irish spade fitted with a footrest on one side of the handle, once used for digging potato ridges.
Farmers built the loy narrow and pointed so it could work stony or heavy ground where a wide spade would stick, and the single footrest let a digger drive the blade down with one boot. It became strongly associated with Irish tillage before mechanized ploughing spread, and it still appears today mainly at heritage fairs where the old digging technique is demonstrated.
How LOY is used
Used mainly in Irish agricultural history and heritage contexts.
- The old farmer still kept a loy hanging in the shed.
- Digging with a loy took more skill than swinging a modern spade.
- He drove the loy into the stony ridge with one push of his boot.
- The museum displayed a loy beside other traditional tools.
- Her grandfather taught her to turn sod with a loy.
- The heritage fair included a demonstration of loy digging.
- A loy left deep, narrow furrows compared with an ordinary spade.
- Potato ridges were once dug entirely by loy before machines took over.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of LOY and 8 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Where else you’ll see LOY
- The loy was the traditional tool for digging potato ridges in Ireland before mechanized ploughs became widespread.
- Loy digging survives today mainly as a demonstrated heritage skill at Irish agricultural fairs rather than as everyday farm work.
Words starting with LOY
15 longer words begin with LOY.
Words ending in LOY
18 words end in LOY. Useful as a back hook: play LOY onto a word already on the board.
Words with LOY inside
Showing 24 of 123 words that contain LOY somewhere in the middle. Words that start with LOY are listed separately above, so nothing is repeated.
Shorter words from the letters in LOY
Common questions about LOY
- Is LOY valid in Words with Friends?
- No. Words with Friends keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries, and LOY is not in it.
- How many points is LOY worth?
- LOY is worth 6 points in Scrabble and 6 points in Words with Friends.
- What does LOY mean?
- A long, narrow Irish spade fitted with a footrest on one side of the handle, once used for digging potato ridges.
- What letters can be added to LOY?
- LOY takes 3 hooks: 2 in front and 1 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 3 letters of LOY:
Open LOY in the Word Finder