Stock up on short words

"Cwm" is not a typo: Three-letter words you didn't know existed

Need a few tricks up your sleeve for playing Scrabble? It’s not always the long words that will impress the other players: Sometimes it’s the surprisingly short combination of letters that none of them knew. Have you ever heard of unassuming three-letter words like "cwm" or "zax"? Those aren’t typos! Let’s explore some of the most obscure –yet perfectly valid– three-letter words.

Before you ask: it’s pronounced "koom". If you run out of vowels in your Scrabble set, this might save you. It refers to a deep, steep-walled valley, often carved by glaciers.

The term comes from Welsh, where it simply means "valley." Many places in Wales proudly bear the name, such as Cwmbran, a town in South Wales, or Cwmtwrch, a village with a name that translates to "Valley of the Wild Boar."

A "zax" is a tool used for cutting or trimming roof slates with precision. The word shares linguistic roots with seax, an Old English word for a short sword or knife.

Plus, in Scrabble, the mighty "Z" (10 points!) paired with "A" (1 point) and "X" (8 points) makes this one of the highest-scoring three-letter words you can play!

No, it’s not a mythical sea creature. "Voe" refers to a small bay or narrow creek that extends inland from the sea. These sheltered inlets are particularly found in Scotland, where they provided safe harbor for fishermen and sailors for centuries.

Some of these sailors were Vikings who once ruled the territory, and who called these bays with the Old Norse word vágr (bay or inlet.)

If you ever see a rowdy, loudmouthed troublemaker being kicked out of a bar in Britain, you might hear someone call them a "yob."

Here’s the funny part: There’s no Old English etymology involved. It’s just "boy" spelled backwards (a bit of Cockney slang trickery).

A very specific noun, but a valid one. A "pyx" is the container used in churches to hold consecrated bread.

The term comes from Latin pyxis, meaning "small box," which in turn derives from the Greek pyxos, a type of boxwood tree. Those three letters combined would earn you at least 15 points!

Have you ever seen the interior of a rock lined with dazzling, beautiful crystals? You might have been looking at a vug.

It’s a small cavity inside a rock that often exposes these pockets of hidden treasures, like quartz, amethyst, or more exotic gems. The word vug comes from the Cornish language, where vooga meant "cave" or "hollow."

Sure, playing "OK" is useful, but have you tried "Oka"? It’s a type of cheese from Canada, and also a historical unit of weight used in Turkey.

The cheese is named after the village of Oka in Quebec, where Trappist monks started making it in the late 19th century.

Gox might sound like the name of some sci-fi character. But it’s just a short abbreviation to refer to "gaseous oxygen."

"O₂" is the more common way to represent it, but "gox" is sometimes used by those in scientific and industrial contexts.

To be fair, you could pluralize any two-letter word by adding an S. "Xis" (the plural of the 14th Greek letter Ξ ξ) is no exception.

Just so you know, "xi" is not the translation of our "X," as you might think. What we call an "X," the Greek would call a "chi."

"Ait" is mostly used in Britain to describe little landmasses that pop up in waterways, like those dotting the Thames.

The word (sometimes spelled eyot) comes from Old English iegoth, meaning "small island." Though it’s not common in everyday speech, you’ll still find it in place names and historical writings.

Before they fully mature, newts crawl on land: this is when we call them efts. These tiny, bright-colored amphibians can be found around damp forests, looking like pocket-sized dragons.

The word eft has been around for centuries, coming from Old English efeta, which evolved to ewt, and ultimately to newt.

The gnu (pronounced "new" or "guh-noo") is better known as the wildebeest, that sturdy African antelope famous for its dramatic migrations across the Serengeti.

The word gnu comes from the Khoisan languages of southern Africa and was first recorded by European explorers in the 18th century. The alternative name wildebeest is the Dutch word for "wild beast," of course.

"Nix" means to reject, cancel, or put an end to something. The word comes from the German nichts, meaning "nothing."

It entered American English in the 19th century, likely through German immigrants. Over time, it became a snappy, no-nonsense way to say "no."

An "ulu" is a traditional Inuit knife with a characteristic curved blade, perfect for chopping, skinning, or even cutting a child's hair (yes, really).

The name comes from the Inuktitut word ᐅᓗ (ulu), which roughly translates to "woman’s knife"

because it was traditionally used by Inuit women for household and hunting tasks.

Well, actually…

They never said that: 12 popular misquotes

Popular quotes are a good way to condense the ideas of a famous figure or to quickly make a reference to our favorite film or book. But we might not realize that many phrases embedded in society’s collective memory are actually misquotes or wrongly attributed to someone else. These are 12 examples of popular misquotes.

If you were to ask who said this phrase, most people would answer Marie Antoinette. However, that would be incorrect. The original phrase—_"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche,"_ or _"Let them eat brioche"_—was attributed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Confessions to an unnamed princess. How do we know it wasn’t Marie Antoinette? She was only nine years old at the time and still living in Austria.

Darth Vader’s most quoted line never existed in that form. In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke accuses Darth Vader of murdering his father, based on what Obi-Wan Kenobi told him. Darth Vader’s actual response—_"No, I am your father"_—has since lived on as a misquote in the collective memory.

Historians disagree about the last words spoken by Julius Caesar. Some say he remained silent after an initial cry of surprise, while others report that he spoke in Greek to his friend Brutus, saying Καὶ σύ, τέκνον ("You too, child"). The famous _"Et tu, Brute?"_—which can be translated as "And you?" or "You too, Brutus?"—first appeared in Caesar Interfectus by Richard Edes, but was later popularized by William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

While this phrase is often associated with Niccolò Machiavelli’s ideology, he never actually said it. In his works, Machiavelli argued that rulers might sometimes need to resort to questionable means to ensure the greater good. He emphasized that one can never fully know a person’s intentions, so it is better to judge them by the results of their actions.

According to legend, while on trial for teaching heliocentrism—at the time not scientifically proven and considered contrary to biblical teaching—Galileo Galilei famously declared "E pur si muove!" ("And yet it moves!"), meaning that the universe does not bend to belief. Although the phrase is attributed to Galileo, it was first recorded at least a century after his death, with no evidence of it being veridical.

Casablanca is one of the undisputed classics of cinematic history, and it has frequently been quoted and used as inspiration. However, one of its most famous phrases—"Play it again, Sam"—is actually a misquote. Ingrid Bergman’s character says both "Play it once, Sam, for old times’ sake" and "Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By’" but the misquote became popular after Woody Allen’s play, later adapted into the film Play It Again, Sam.

This lovely quote, often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, is another example of a phrase mistakenly linked to a famous figure. Gandhi expressed a similar sentiment in his writings—the idea that change must begin with oneself—but the exact wording is not his. The phrase is more accurately attributed to Arleen Lorrance, a 1970s educator.

In the early 20th century, Evelyn Beatrice Hall published The Friends of Voltaire, a biography of the French philosopher. In it, as a way to illustrate Voltaire’s beliefs on freedom of speech, she penned the phrase: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." The maxim was such a good synopsis of Voltairian ideals that most people came to believe it was a direct quote from him.

On April 13, 1970, the Apollo 13 spacecraft had to abort its mission due to the explosion of an oxygen tank. Astronaut Jack Swigert first reported the issue with the words: "Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here." Jim Lovell later repeated, "Houston, we’ve had a problem." How did the misquote become so popular? In the 1995 film Apollo 13, the screenwriter thought the past tense was not dramatic enough, and he changed it to "we have a problem."

One could argue that this phrase is one of the quintessential Sherlock Holmes sayings. But did you know it wasn’t written by Arthur Conan Doyle? Sherlock Holmes does call his companion "my dear Watson," and he uses the word "elementary" when describing his deductions, but the full phrase —"Elementary, my dear Watson"— first appeared in a 1899 stage play and was later popularized by Basil Rathbone’s film adaptations.

Real Trekkies know that this phrase, though popular, was never actually spoken by Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek series. He did say similar lines, such as "Mr. Scott, beam us up," and other variants. The misquote became so popular that it entered popular culture as a saying of its own.

Some could argue that the Bible is the most misquoted book of all time. This particular phrase, often cited from Paul’s first letter to Timothy, is used to criticize money, but most people don’t realize that it is only a partial quote. The full passage—"For the love of money is the root of all evil"—warns against the dangers of loving money excessively.