Words Ending in U — Borrowed Sounds From Borrowed Languages
English doesn't naturally end words with the letter U. Almost every one of the roughly 200 U-ending words in the dictionary arrived from another language with its original spelling intact. ADIEU is French for "to God" (as in farewell). TOFU comes from Japanese. GURU is Sanskrit. BAYOU is Choctaw. CARIBOU is Mi'kmaq. TUTU is both French (a ballet skirt) and Zulu (a name meaning "father of the people"). This makes the U-ending list a linguistic travel log — flip through it and you're touching a dozen language families in a few minutes. One interesting wrinkle: several U-enders have unusual plurals. ADIEU can become ADIEUX or ADIEUS. CHATEAU becomes CHATEAUX. ABOIDEAU, a type of Acadian dyke, pluralizes to ABOIDEAUX. In Scrabble, knowing both plural forms gives you options most opponents won't see coming.
For word game strategy, the short U-enders are your best friends. EMU (3 letters, 5 points) fits anywhere. ECRU, TOFU, and MENU are all easy four-letter plays. AMU (an atomic mass unit) is valid and useful when the board is tight. Here's a tip that works especially well with U-enders: many of these words use tiles that are otherwise hard to dump — the second U on your rack, for instance, finally has somewhere to go. If you're stuck with two U tiles in Scrabble, words like BAYOU, KUDZU, and PUPU can rescue your game. Pair this page with words ending in A and words ending in O, which share the same loanword-heavy character. For the starting side of U, see words starting with U.
FAQ
What are the best U-ending words for Scrabble?
EMU and AMU are strong three-letter plays that fit tight spots. ADIEU is a five-letter gem that uses four vowels, making it a great rack-cleaner when you're vowel-heavy. KUDZU is worth 19 base points thanks to the K and Z tiles. For other vowel-heavy word strategies, check words ending in I and words ending in O, which also feature heavily borrowed vocabulary.
Can ADIEU be pluralized as ADIEUX in word games?
Yes. Both ADIEUS and ADIEUX are valid in Scrabble and Words With Friends. The X-form is borrowed directly from French plural conventions. This dual-plural trick also applies to other French-origin words like CHATEAU/CHATEAUX and GATEAU/GATEAUX. You'll find more X-ending plays on words ending in X.
Why do so many U-ending words come from other languages?
English spelling conventions inherited from Latin and French almost never leave a bare U at the end of a word — instead, English adds a silent E (BLUE, TRUE, ARGUE). Words that do end in U skipped this anglicization process and kept their original foreign spelling. The same pattern explains why words ending in J and words ending in V are also dominated by loanwords.