PONGO is a valid Scrabble word — 8 points
Yes. PONGO is accepted by every list we check: Collins, the North American lists and Words with Friends. It scores 8 points in Scrabble and 11 in Words with Friends.
Which word lists accept PONGO?
| 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 PONGO is to know. It scores 8 from 5 tiles, takes 1 hook, and its letters make up 5.4% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for PONGO
Front hooks — 0
None.
Back hooks — 1
pongosChecked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How PONGO scores
Face value of the 5 tiles in PONGO, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| p | 1 | 2 |
| o | 2 | 8 |
| n | 1 | 6 |
| g | 1 | 3 |
Drawing exactly these 5 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 74,690.
What does PONGO mean in Scrabble?
noun
informalBritish
In informal British and Australian slang, especially as used by sailors, a soldier of the army; in older use, also a general informal word for a monkey or ape.
Members of the navy and air force in Britain and Australia have long used pongo as a light, teasing nickname for soldiers of the army, part of the traditional banter between the armed services rather than any serious insult. The exact origin of pongo is uncertain, though some writers link it to an older slang word for an unpleasant smell, joking about army life in the field. Long before its military sense became common, pongo also served as an old-fashioned, informal word for any monkey or ape, a sense now largely forgotten outside dictionaries. Fiction and memoirs about military service still use pongo to capture the flavour of informal service slang.
How PONGO is used
Informal, chiefly British and Australian, used mainly as light inter-service slang by sailors or airmen referring to soldiers.
- The sailors joked that no pongo could survive a week at sea.
- He served as a pongo in an infantry regiment for six years.
- The old sailor still called every soldier he met a pongo.
- In the story, the zookeeper fed a banana to the pongo in its cage.
- Memoirs of the war used pongo affectionately for the army lads.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of PONGO and 5 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Words starting with PONGO
2 longer words begin with PONGO.
Words with PONGO inside
5 words contain PONGO in the middle. Words that start with PONGO are listed separately above, so nothing is repeated.
Shorter words from the letters in PONGO
Common questions about PONGO
- Is PONGO valid in Words with Friends?
- Yes. Words with Friends accepts PONGO, where it scores 11 points. That game keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries.
- How many points is PONGO worth?
- PONGO is worth 8 points in Scrabble and 11 points in Words with Friends.
- What does PONGO mean?
- In informal British and Australian slang, especially as used by sailors, a soldier of the army; in older use, also a general informal word for a monkey or ape.
- What letters can be added to PONGO?
- PONGO takes 1 hook: 0 in front and 1 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 5 letters of PONGO:
Open PONGO in the Word Finder