Words With Two or More I's

By the expression on her face, I could tell that Shameless Shirley was looking for a play that would use all of her tiles. Her eyes darted back and forth as she arranged and rearranged anagrams in her mind. She possessed only common, one-point letters:

E R N A I T I

After considering the play VAINER with a V already on the board, Shirley reluctantly chose DETAIN which grabbed up a double word score. "I can see some six-letter words," she exclaimed, "but
I can't think of one that uses the extra I."

"There is one word," I informed her. "Think physics." Scroll to the bottom to find the answer.

My least favorite vowel to draw in Scrabble is I. It is not very hard to use just one since it is the third most common letter (only E and S are in more words), but using two or more at the same time is a real challenge. It seems like you need a college degree in an applied science to know these words. In addition, unlike every other vowel, there are no three-letter moves that contain 2 I's. Nevertheless, there are a few different ways to rid your rack of excess I's. Consider the following hypothetical game.

If I had a nightmare about Scrabble, this is the board that would inhabit it. Luckily the chances of this board occurring in a regulation game are astronomically low, however it does illustrate a some good examples of science words and suffixes that may be quite useful the next time you need to get rid of some I's. Here are just a few of them.

-IC Words: For the most part, words that end with -IC form adjectives that pertain to the root word (IDIOTIC, ACIDIC, etc.). In chemistry, an -IC word denotes a chemical element with a higher concentration of oxygen atoms per molecule than one with the suffix -OUS; thus, nitrous acid (HNO2) has a lower oxidation number than nitric acid (HNO3).

-IN Words: Once again, this suffix relates to chemistry, forming a wide variety of names for different compounds. These chemicals include proteins (RICIN), dyes (ALIZARIN), and flavorings (VANILLIN).

-ITIS Words: This medical suffix denotes an inflammation of a particular body part. IRITIS is an inflammation of the iris; CARDITIS is an inflammation of the heart.

Finally, this week's list contains four-letter words that have I's as their second and fourth letters. Sometimes a game presses you to make a move that ends with an I, so it's always good to have a few short words up your sleeve to fill the spot.

BIDI, n., a thin cigarette from India

HILI, n.pl. of HILUS, an opening in a body organ

KIWI, n., a flightless bird; a fruit

LIRI, n.pl. of LIRA, a monetary unit of Malta

MIDI, n., a skirt that ends mid-calf

MINI, n., a smaller version of something

MIRI, n.pl. of MIR, a Russian peasant commune

NIDI, n.pl. of NIDUS, an animal nest; a birthplace

NISI, conj., if not; unless; except

PIKI, n., a bread made of blue cornmeal

PILI, n., a Philippine tree; n.pl. of PILUS, a hair or hairlike structure

TIKI, n., a carved image of a Polynesian god

TIPI, n., alternate form of TEPEE, a conical Native American tent

TITI, n., an evergreen shrub, a South American monkey

ZITI, n., a tubular pasta

-Jiff Z. Moneyer

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