Words Ending in C

Nearly 4,000 Words Ending in C — The Science Suffix

If a word ends in C, there's a good chance it came from a laboratory, a textbook, or ancient Greece. The -IC suffix is the engine behind this massive group: ACADEMIC, ORGANIC, ELECTRIC, GENETIC, HISTORIC, DRAMATIC, FANTASTIC. This suffix turns nouns into adjectives (HERO to HEROIC, ATOM to ATOMIC) and has been doing so since Greek passed through Latin on its way into English. But not all C-enders are -IC words. DISC, ZINC, ARC, TALC, and LILAC end in C without any suffix at all. HAVOC and MANIC sit somewhere in between. One fact that surprises people: the -IC ending is so productive in English that it generates new words constantly. GENOMIC didn't exist before the Human Genome Project. MEMIC entered slang dictionaries in the 2010s. The suffix is alive and still working.

For crossword solving, C-ending words appear constantly because the -IC pattern crosses well with common letters. A seven-letter slot ending in IC? Try CLASSIC, GENERIC, ORGANIC, PLASTIC, DRASTIC. A nine-letter slot? FANTASTIC, GEOMETRIC, SARCASTIC. The predictability of -IC words makes them among the most solvable crossword entries. In Scrabble, ZINC is a compact 15-point word, and MANIC, SONIC, TOXIC, and HAVOC all use common tiles efficiently. One strategy note: if you're holding a C tile and can't find a play, look for an existing word on the board that you can extend with -IC. Turning ORGAN into ORGANIC or HERO into HEROIC is a classic rack-clearing move. Related pages worth exploring: words ending in A covers Latin/Greek endings that often share roots with -IC words, and words starting with E feeds C-enders like ELECTRIC, ENDEMIC, and EXOTIC. Also see words ending in G for the -ING forms of many IC-root verbs.

FAQ