There are only two letters in Scrabble and its variants that cannot be used to form a two-letter word: the letters C and V. This makes them considerably less useful. They are harder to dump if you just want to to get rid of them, and more difficult to form parallel plays with. The C has additional challenges in that a C often needs an H or a K to go with it. These common dependencies also reduce the flexibility of the letter C.
Today’s article focuses on increasing your options for using the letter C and introduces a new way to strategically study words in general. Typically, when we try to learn new words, we will create or find word lists for words that either contain or start with a certain letter. Another strategy, however, which is just as useful for crossword game players, is to study words that END with a particular letter.
The word list below contains a relatively small selection (47) of 3 to 4 words that end with the letter C. Many of these words will be unfamiliar to you, but if you learn them, you will not only have more options for times when you draw a C, but when you need to play to the letter C, especially when it is against the right hand side of the board. You might also notice that a good percentage of words that end with C end with IC. So the letter I is also a particularly useful vowel to have when looking for words that end with C. As usual, I recommend you copy and paste these into a word processor and remove those that you are very familiar with to minimize how many you need to study.
3 to 4 letter words that end with C
| ALEC | a herring (a food fish) [n -S] |
| ARC | to move in a curved course [v ARCED, ARCING, ARCS or ARCKED, ARCKING, ARCS] |
| BLOC | a coalition [n -S] |
| CHIC | smartly stylish [adj CHICER, CHICEST] / elegance (tasteful opulence) [n -S] |
| CROC | a crocodile [n -S] |
| DISC | to disk (to break up land with a type of farm implement) [v -ED, -ING, -S] |
| DOC | doctor [n -S] |
| EMIC | relating to a type of linguistic analysis [adj] |
| EPIC | a long narrative poem [n -S] : EPICAL [adj], EPICALLY [adv] |
| ETIC | relating to a type of linguistic analysis [adj] |
| EXEC | an executive officer [n -S] |
| FISC | a state or royal treasury [n -S] |
| FLIC | a Parisian policeman [n -S] |
| FLOC | to aggregate into floccules [v FLOCCED, FLOCCING, FLOCS] |
| HIC | used to represent a hiccup [interj] |
| HUIC | used to encourage hunting hounds [interj] |
| LAC | a resinous substance secreted by certain insects [n -S] |
| LAIC | a layman (a member of the laity) [n -S] : LAICAL [adj], LAICALLY [adv] |
| MAC | a raincoat (a waterproof coat) [n -S] |
| MARC | the residue remaining after a fruit has been pressed [n -S] |
| MERC | a mercenary [n -S] |
| MIC | a microphone [n -S] |
| MOC | a moccasin (a type of shoe (a covering for the foot)) [n -S] |
| MYC | a gene that transforms a normal cell into a cancerous cell [n -S] |
| NARC | an undercover drug agent [n -S] |
| ODIC | pertaining to an ode (a lyric poem) [adj] |
| ORC | a marine mammal [n -S] |
| OTIC | pertaining to the ear [adj] |
| PAC | a shoe patterned after a moccasin [n -S] |
| PEC | a chest muscle [n -S] |
| PIC | a photograph [n -S] |
| PYIC | pertaining to pus (a viscous fluid formed in infected tissue) [adj] |
| REC | recreation (refreshment of strength and spirits after work) [n -S] |
| ROC | a legendary bird of prey [n -S] |
| SAC | a pouchlike structure in an animal or plant [n -S] |
| SEC | secant (a trigonometric function of an angle) [n -S] |
| SIC | to urge to attack [v SICCED, SICCING, SICS] |
| SPEC | to write specifications for [v SPECCED, SPECCING, SPECS] |
| SPIC | a Spanish-American person — an offensive term [n -S] |
| SYNC | to cause to operate in unison [v -ED, -ING, -S] |
| TALC | to treat with talc (a soft mineral with a soapy texture) [v TALCKED, TALCKING, TALCS or TALCED, TALCING, TALCS] : TALCKY, TALCOSE, TALCOUS [adj] |
| TIC | to have an involuntary muscle contraction [v TICCED, TICCING, TICS] |
| TORC | a metal collar or necklace [n -S] |
| URIC | pertaining to urine (a liquid containing body wastes) [adj] |
| VAC | a vacuum cleaner [n -S] |
| ZINC | to coat with zinc (a metallic element) [v ZINCED, ZINCING, ZINCS or ZINCKED, ZINCKING, ZINCS] |
| ZOIC | pertaining to animals or animal life [adj] |
