Why these words are interesting
Most English words need only one or two vowel sounds. A word that holds all five written vowels is unusual enough to turn up in trivia, in word-game challenges and in the occasional spelling quiz. Our dictionary has 2,462 of them, and nearly every one is long, because fitting five distinct vowels and the consonants that separate them takes at least 7 letters.
This list is the mirror image of our page on words without vowels. Between them, the two pages mark the extremes of how vowels are used in English. Here you will find the shortest words with all five, the ones that use each vowel exactly once, and the ones where the vowels appear in alphabetical order, all calculated from the dictionary.
How long they are
| Length | Words |
|---|---|
| 7 letters | 3 |
| 8 letters | 17 |
| 9 letters | 65 |
| 10 letters | 181 |
| 11 letters | 288 |
| 12 letters | 330 |
| 13 letters | 376 |
| 14 letters | 347 |
The counts rise to a peak around twelve to fourteen letters, where there is enough room for five vowels but not so much that the word becomes a rare technical term. The shortest, with 7 letters, are the real curiosities.
Words using each vowel exactly once
These are the tidiest words in the group: A, E, I, O and U each appear once and no vowel repeats. The list below shows the 76 that are nine letters or shorter, and the full group has 717.
aequorin aequorins aerobium agouties andouille aneuploid armouries arsenious auctioned aureoling authorise authorize autoecism autogenic autopsied autopsies autotelic behaviour cautioned cousinage dialogue dialogued dialogues edacious education emulation equation equations equimolar equivocal eulogia eulogias euphorbia euphoria euphorias exonumia exudation facetious gouramies guanosine housemaid inoculate isobutane jailhouse jalousie jalousies juniorate miaoued micaceous nefarious neuroglia odalisque ossuaries outeating outgained outraise outraised outraises outsailed outwaited pneumonia sautoire sautoires savourier savouries sequoia sequoias tenacious thiourea thioureas trialogue urokinase uvarovite veracious vexatious vinaceous
Words with the vowels in alphabetical order
10 words have their vowels appear in the order A, E, I, O, U, reading from left to right. The shortest are below. Words with the vowels in reverse order (U, O, I, E, A) are even rarer, with 2 in our dictionary.
arsenious facetious abstemious abstentious arenicolous facetiously abstemiously adventitious cavernicolous adventitiously
The shortest words with all five vowels
These are all of the matching words with nine letters or fewer. They are the only ones likely to fit on a Scrabble board.
aboideau aboideaus aboideaux aboiteau aboiteaus aboiteaux aequorin aequorins aerobium agouties andouille aneuploid armouries arsenious auctioned audiotape aureoling authorise authorize autoecism autogenic autopsied autopsies autotelic behaviour cautioned cousinage dialogue dialogued dialogues edacious education emulation equation equations equimolar equivocal eulogia eulogiae eulogias euphorbia euphoria euphorias exonumia exudation facetious gouramies guanosine housemaid idealogue inoculate isobutane jailhouse jalousie jalousies juniorate miaoued micaceous nefarious neuroglia odalisque ossuaries outeating outgained outraise outraised outraises outsailed outwaited pneumonia sautoire sautoires savourier savouries sequoia sequoias tenacious thiourea thioureas trialogue urokinase uvarovite veracious vexatious vinaceous
Highest-scoring words with all five vowels
Vowels score a single point each in Scrabble, so words made mostly of vowels score low unless the consonants are valuable. These are the highest scorers in the group.
| Word | Scrabble points | WWF points |
|---|---|---|
| IMMUNOCYTOCHEMICALLY | 41 | 48 |
| IMMUNOELECTROPHORETICALLY | 41 | 49 |
| KERATOCONJUNCTIVITIDES | 41 | 49 |
| PSYCHOTHERAPEUTICALLY | 41 | 44 |
| KERATOCONJUNCTIVITISES | 40 | 48 |
| SUBJECTIVIZATIONS | 40 | 47 |
| DICHLORODIFLUOROMETHANES | 39 | 43 |
| HYPERIMMUNIZATIONS | 39 | 43 |
| PHOSPHOFRUCTOKINASES | 39 | 42 |
| SUBJECTIVIZATION | 39 | 46 |
| DICHLORODIFLUOROMETHANE | 38 | 42 |
| HYPERIMMUNIZATION | 38 | 42 |
Tips for vowel-heavy racks
- Exchange before you force it. Five vowels in seven tiles is rare and rarely scores. If the rack is clogged, an exchange is often better than a weak play.
- Play two vowels at a time. Short words like AI, EA and OE use two vowels at once, so check the two-letter words.
- Keep a few consonants. Strong players avoid draining the bag of consonants for themselves; they keep S, R, T, N and L to make long words later.
- Use the finder. Our Word Finder with Must contain set to aeiou lists every word that has all five, and you can add a start or end to narrow the list.
For more on racks, see the Scrabble strategy guide. The word with the highest share of vowels in our list is ABOIDEAU, where 6 of its 8 letters are vowels.