Words Ending With C
100 wordsWords ending in C form one of English's most distinctive patterns, dominated by adjectives built from Greek and Latin roots. You'll find scientific terminology, medical vocabulary, and everyday words that reveal how technical language shapes our dictionary.
3-letter words
54-letter words
65-letter words
126-letter words
217-letter words
148-letter words
229-letter words
1010-letter words
511-letter words
212-letter words
215-letter words
1Pattern Guide
Insights and recommendations for these words.
The -IC ending creates some of the highest-scoring words in competitive play, thanks to letter combinations that pack serious point potential.
Vocabulary & Language
Linguistic patterns and usage statistics
The suffix -IC transforms nouns into adjectives, which explains why 81% of these words are adjectives. This pattern appears in words like NUMERIC (from Latin numerus) and ENZYMIC (from enzyme). Greek scientific terminology particularly favored this ending, giving us compound medical and chemical terms that stack prefixes onto the -IC base.
Total Words
4,194
1.4% of dictionary
Avg Length
9.8 letters
3.8 syllables
Top Scrabble
PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGIC
41 points
Longest Word
ADRENOCORTICOTROPHIC
20 letters
Parts of Speech
At 9.8 letters average, these words run significantly longer than typical dictionary entries. The 81% adjective dominance reflects how -IC functions almost exclusively as an adjective-forming suffix, with nouns like ZINC being the exception rather than the rule.
Ancient Greek dominates this pattern, reflecting how Greek scientific vocabulary flooded into English through Latin intermediaries. The etymology chain for NUMERIC shows this layering: French borrowed from Latin, which built on Proto-Italic roots. SAC demonstrates another path—Greek σᾰ́κκος traveled through Latin and Old French before reaching English.
Word Games
High-value words for board games
Short (2-4)
a bluish-white lustrous metallic element; brittle at ordinary temperatures but malleable when heated; used in a wide variety of alloys and in galvanizing iron; it occurs naturally as zinc sulphide in zinc blende
pertaining to animals or animal life or action
the chief executive department of the United States government
Medium (5-7)
of or relating to or causing fermentation
Long (8+)
Short (2-4)
a bluish-white lustrous metallic element; brittle at ordinary temperatures but malleable when heated; used in a wide variety of alloys and in galvanizing iron; it occurs naturally as zinc sulphide in zinc blende
pertaining to animals or animal life or action
the chief executive department of the United States government
Medium (5-7)
small Asian deer with small antlers and a cry like a bark
Long (8+)
having an effect similar to that resulting from stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system
ZINC performs well in both games, but WWF awards 17 points versus Scrabble's 15. The real strategic difference emerges in medium-length words: MUNTJAC scores 24 in WWF thanks to the boosted J value (10 vs 8 in Scrabble), making it a stronger WWF play. For monster scores, PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGIC reaches 41 in Scrabble but climbs to 46 in WWF, rewarding players who can find premium tile placement.
Wordle
5-letter words for daily puzzles
Good Starters (E, A, R, S, T)
SERAC and SERIC offer solid vowel coverage with common consonants S, R, and C. ARTIC places the frequent A while testing both R and T positions.
Length Extremes
Longest and shortest valid words
Short -IC words like ARC and DOC are rare because the suffix typically attaches to existing roots. The longest entries reach 20 letters as scientific terminology chains multiple Greek and Latin elements together.
Hidden Gems
Rare but valid words to surprise opponents
not centered or having no center
"an acentric chromosome fragment"
characterized by or given to telling anecdotes
"he was at his anecdotic best"
a person suffering from anorexia nervosa
"an anorectic (or anorexigenic) drug"
ACENTRIC means not centered or having no center—a term borrowed from geometry and cell biology. It's surprisingly valid in word games and offers strong letter distribution with common tiles arranged in an unexpected pattern.
Popular crossword answers
Words frequently used in crossword puzzles with common clues.