ZULU is valid in Collins, not in North America — 13 points
It depends on the list you play by. ZULU 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 13 points. Words with Friends does not accept it either.
Which word lists accept ZULU?
| 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: 40 / 100
Our own measure of how useful ZULU is to know. It scores 13 from 4 tiles, takes 1 hook, and its letters make up 3.3% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for ZULU
Front hooks — 0
None.
Back hooks — 1
zulusChecked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How ZULU scores
Face value of the 4 tiles in ZULU, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| z | 1 | 1 |
| u | 2 | 4 |
| l | 1 | 4 |
Drawing exactly these 4 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 163,384.
What does ZULU mean in Scrabble?
noun
technical
(In the NATO phonetic alphabet) The code word used to represent the letter Z.
Radio and military communication rely on a fixed set of words to spell out letters clearly over noisy channels, and zulu is the word assigned to Z. Pilots, sailors and emergency services use it constantly, and it also names the time standard Zulu time, which is simply Greenwich Mean Time given a radio-friendly label.
How ZULU is used
Used in aviation, maritime and military radio communication rather than everyday speech.
- The pilot read back the tail number, ending with zulu for the final letter.
- Air traffic control confirmed the callsign letter by letter, finishing on zulu.
- The report listed the time as 1400 zulu rather than local time.
- She spelled her surname over the radio, using zulu for the last letter.
- The manual explains why zulu replaced earlier codes for the letter Z.
- Mission control logged every event in zulu time for consistency.
- The operator repeated the callsign, stressing zulu so it would not be missed.
- Sailors on the bridge used zulu when reading coordinates aloud.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of ZULU and 8 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Where else you’ll see ZULU
- Zulu time is simply Greenwich Mean Time, renamed for clear radio use because local time zones vary by station.
- The NATO phonetic alphabet, including zulu, was standardised in the 1950s to avoid letters being confused over noisy radio links.
Words starting with ZULU
1 longer words begin with ZULU.
Shorter words from the letters in ZULU
Common questions about ZULU
- Is ZULU valid in Words with Friends?
- No. Words with Friends keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries, and ZULU is not in it.
- How many points is ZULU worth?
- ZULU is worth 13 points in Scrabble and 16 points in Words with Friends.
- What does ZULU mean?
- (In the NATO phonetic alphabet) The code word used to represent the letter Z.
- What letters can be added to ZULU?
- ZULU takes 1 hook: 0 in front and 1 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 4 letters of ZULU:
Open ZULU in the Word Finder