Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Avail

Definition: Avail

Avail

Noun

1. A means of serving; "of no avail"; "there's no help for it".

Verb

1. Use to one's advantage; "He availed himself of the available resources".

2. Be of use to, be useful to; "It will avail them to dispose of their booty".

3. Take or use; "She helped herself to some of the office supplies".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "avail" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)


Abbreviations & Acronyms: Avail

The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted.
EntrySourceExpressionField

avail

EnglishAvailableComputing

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Synonyms: Avail

Synonyms: service (n), help (v). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Avail

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Inutility

Adjective: useless, inutile, inefficacious, futile, unavailing, bootless; inoperative; inadequate; (insufficient); inservient, unsubservient; inept, inefficient; (impotent); of no avail; (use); ineffectual; (failure); incompetent; (unskillful); " stale, flat and unprofitable"; superfluous; (redundant); dispensable; thrown away; (wasted); abortive; (immature).

Success

Answer, answer the purpose; avail, prevail, take effect, do, turn out well, work well, take, tell, bear fruit; hit it, hit the mark, hit the right nail on the head; nick it; turn up trumps, make a hit; find one's account in.

Use

Ply, work, wield, handle, manipulate; play, play off; exert, exercise, practice, avail oneself of, profit by, resort to, have recourse to, recur to, take betake oneself to; take up with, take advantage of; lay one's hands on, try.

Exercitation; application, appliance; adhibition, disposal; consumption; agency; (physical); usufruct; usefulness; benefit; recourse, resort, avail.

Utility

Verb: be useful; Adjective: avail, serve; subserve; (be instrumental to); conduce; (tend); answer, serve one's turn, answer a purpose, serve a purpose.

Noun: utility; usefulness; Adjective: efficacy, efficiency, adequacy; service, use, stead, avail; help; (aid); applicability; Adjective: subservience; (instrumentality); function; (business); value; worth; (goodness); money's worth; productiveness; cui bono; (intention); utilization; (use) step in the right direction.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Avail

English words defined with "avail": apply, Availed, AvailingBesteadGaynein vainpracticetax lien, To advantage one's self of, To avail one's self of, To serve one's self ofusevainly. (references)
Specialty definitions using "avail": BalisardaEuropeFLY. (references)
Etymologies containing "avail": valiant. (references)

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Modern Usage: Avail

DomainUsage

Screenplays

The Dark Flame will not avail you, Flame of Udun. (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; writing credit: Frances Walsh)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Avail

DomainTitle

Books

  • Prayers That Avail Much for Fathers: James 5:16 (Prayers That Avail Much) (reference)

  • The Prayers That Avail Much Journal (reference)

    (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Photo Album: Avail

ThumbnailDescription & Credit

... efforts to treat the child's double pneumonia were of no avail. / WHO photo. Credit: National Library of Medicine.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Familiar Quotations: Avail

AuthorQuotation

Andrew Carnegie

No amount of ability is of the slightest avail without honor.

Horace

What do sad complaints avail if the offense is not cut down by punishment.

Hosea Ballou

Preaching is to much avail, but practice is far more effective. A godly life is the strongest argument you can offer the skeptic.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

For what avail the plough or sail, Or land or life, if freedom fail?
One of the benefits of a college education is to show the boy its little avail.

Samuel Johnson

Bravery has no place where it can avail nothing.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Historic Usage: Avail

AuthorDateQuotation

Treaty of Versailles

1919

In no case can Germany avail herself of these instruments and she undertakes not to intervene in any way in negotiations relating to Egypt which may take place between Great Britain and the other Powers. (reference)

Winston S. Churchill

1946

I shall certainly avail myself of this freedom, and feel the more right to do so because any private ambitions I may have cherished in my younger days have been satisfied beyond my wildest dreams. ("Iron Curtain" Speech)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Use in Literature: Avail

TitleAuthorQuote

Emma

Austen, Jane

At her age she can have no experience, and with her little wit, is not very likely ever to have any that can avail her.

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

Your riches and your enjoyments are advantages that I have over you in the debate, but it is not in good taste to avail myself of them.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Avail

SubjectTopicQuote

Business

If so, these companies could avail themselves of the cost advantages which Argentina enjoys to make significant entries into export markets. (references)

Economic History

Norway

Companies can avail themselves of many trade promotion opportunities. (references)

Russia

U.S. firms should avail themselves of locally based specialists familiar with issues confronting western firms in Russia. (references)

Human Rights

Guyana

Prior to his death, Brunoanish reportedly asked for medical attention to no avail. (references)

Trade

India

The rule of origin requirement is mandatory to avail tariff preferences. (references)

South Africa

Furthermore, long term insurers, pension funds and unit trusts through unit trust management companies may now also apply to avail of foreign currency transfers in 2000 of up to 10% of the net inflow of funds during the 1999 calendar year and to acquire foreign portfolio investments subject to the overall respective limits referred to. (references)

Travel

Uk

Visitors uncomfortable with or intimidated by the prospect of driving on the left-hand side of the road may wish to avail themselves of extensive bus, rail and air transport networks, though these can be expensive modes of travel. (references)

Worker Rights

United Kingdom

Effective in April, the Government increased the threshold of total personal assets to allow more low-income pensioners to avail themselves of this benefit. (references)

Lexicography

Devil's Dictionary

FLY-:SPECK:, n. The prototype of punctuation. It is observed by Garvinus that the systems of punctuation in use by the various literary nations depended originally upon the social habits and general diet of the flies infesting the several countries. These creatures, which have always been distinguished for a neighborly and companionable familiarity with authors, liberally or niggardly embellish the manuscripts in process of growth under the pen, according to their bodily habit, bringing out the sense of the work by a species of interpretation superior to, and independent of, the writer's powers. The "old masters" of literature -- that is to say, the early writers whose work is so esteemed by later scribes and critics in the same language -- never punctuated at all, but worked right along free-handed, without that abruption of the thought which comes from the use of points. (We observe the same thing in children to-day, whose usage in this particular is a striking and beautiful instance of the law that the infancy of individuals reproduces the methods and stages of development characterizing the infancy of races.) In the work of these primitive scribes all the punctuation is found, by the modern investigator with his optical instruments and chemical tests, to have been inserted by the writers' ingenious and serviceable collaborator, the common house-fly -- Musca maledicta. In transcribing these ancient MSS, for the purpose of either making the work their own or preserving what they naturally regard as divine revelations, later writers reverently and accurately copy whatever marks they find upon the papyrus or parchment, to the unspeakable enhancement of the lucidity of the thought and value of the work. Writers contemporary with the copyists naturally avail themselves of the obvious advantages of these marks in their own work, and with such assistance as the flies of their own household may be willing to grant, frequently rival and sometimes surpass the older compositions, in respect at least of punctuation, which is no small glory. Fully to understand the important services that flies perform to literature it is only necessary to lay a page of some popular novelist alongside a saucer of cream-and-molasses in a sunny room and observe "how the wit brightens and the style refines" in accurate proportion to the duration of exposure.

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Speeches: Avail

SpeakerTermPhrase(s)

James Madison

1809-1817This unexceptionable course could not avail against the injustice and violence of the belligerent powers.

Andrew Jackson

1829-1837With a full understanding of the subject, the Choctaw and the Chickasaw tribes have with great unanimity determined to avail themselves of the liberal offers presented by the act of Congress, and have agreed to remove beyond the Mississippi River.

Ulysses S. Grant

1869-1877To this correction I stand committed, so far as Executive influence can avail.

Woodrow Wilson

1913-1921The thing I shall count upon, the thing without which neither counsel nor action will avail, is the unity of America--an America united in feeling, in purpose and in its vision of duty, of opportunity and of service.

John F. Kennedy

1961-1963All our material riches will avail us little if we do not use them to expand the opportunities of our people.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Usage Frequency: Avail

"Avail" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 62.89% of the time. "Avail" is used about 353 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Noun (singular)62.89%22220,237
Lexical Verb (infinitive)32.58%11530,138
Lexical Verb (base form)3.12%11106,044
Unclassified Items1.42%5157,705
                    Total100.00%353N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expressions: Avail

Expressions using "avail": avail oneself avail oneself of avail oneself of smth. be of avail be of little avail be of no avail of avail of little avail of no avail of what avail is it? To avail one's self of to no avail without avail. Additional references.

Hyphenated Usage

Beginning with "avail": avail-able.

Containing "avail": av-av-avail-av-is.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Avail

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

avail

123

avail available.html nwa.com travel

75

prayer that avail much

19

avail lyrics

8

avail medical

7

avail no

4

avail consulting

4

avail avail.com

3

avail technology

3

avail prayer that

3

avail medical product

3

avail executive search

3

avail lavigne

2

avail network

2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Avail

Language Translations for "avail"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Afrikaans

  

baat (account, advantage, benefit, gain, profit). (various references)

   

Albanian

  

vlerë (amount, asset, caliber, calibre, denomination, feck, merit, price, purchase, quality, rate, valor, valour, value, worth), shërbej (act, attend, fetch and carry, lackey, lacquey, minister, nurse, oblige, serve, wait, wait on, wait upon), ndihmoj (administer, advance, aid, assist, back, befriend, bestead, chip in, contribute, facilitate, further, give a hand, help, help out, lend a hand, make for, meet halfway, pander, promote, relieve, subserve, succor, succour, support, take effect, tide over), dobi (advantage, benefit, boot, expedience, expediency, gain, good, instrumentality, interest, use, utility, value), bëj punë (do). (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏فائدة (advantage, behoof, benefit, good, increase, interest, living, pay off, pay-book, profit, scoop, use, usefulness, usury, utility, welfare, worth), ‏نفع (instrumentation, profit, serve, use, usefulness), ‏إستفاد (avail oneself of, benefit, benefit by, capitalize, conclude, deduce, improve, profit), ‏إستغل (exploit, follow up, harness, impose, milk, presume, profiteer, quarry, take advantage of, tap, trade on), ‏أفاد (benefit, signify, subserve). (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

от полза (profitable, useful), облага (benefit, convenience, profit), помагам на (assist, forward, help, second), ползувам (be use of, benefit, employ, profit, serve, use), полза (account, advantage, behoof, boot, expedience, expediency, favour, good, interest, profit, use, utility, value, velvet). (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

". (various references)

   

Czech

  

užitek (benefit, good, utility), prospívat (prosper, thrive, vail), prospìch (advantage, behoof, benefit, good, grades, interest, profit, welfare, well). (various references)

   

Danish

  

Medlemsstaterne udnytter alle muligheder (Member States shall avail themselves of any opportunity). (various references)

   

Dutch

  

van nut zýn, helpen (abet, accomodate, aid, assist, help, serve), baten (accomodate, aid, assist, help). (various references)

   

Esperanto

  

utili. (various references)

   

Faeroese

  

nytta, gagna. (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

فایده بخشیدن , فایده (Advantage, Fruit, Profit, Use, Utter), کمک (Adjutant, Aid, Ancillary, Assist, Assistance, Hand, Help, Helper, Helpmeet, Mate, Relief, Second, Service, Subservience, Succor, Support), سودمندبودن (Advantage), سود (Advantage, Dividend, Fruit, Gain, Good, Grist, Increment, Interest, Lucre, Profit, Utter), استفاده (Beneficiary, Benefit, Gain, Use, Utilization), ارزش (Cost, Price, Valence, Value), دارای ارزش بودن , دردسترس واقع شدن , بدردخوردن (Answer, Dow, Serve). (various references)

   

Finnish

  

apu (aid, assistance, help, relief, remedy, rescue, succour, support, use). (various references)

   

French

  

profiter, profit, faire profiter, exploiter. (various references)

   

Frisian

  

bate. (various references)

   

German

  

helfen (abet, accomodate, aid, aiding, assist, be of help to, cure, give a hand, help, lend a hand, relieve, to aid, to assist, to avail, to lend a hand, to second). (various references)

   

Greek 

  

χρησιμεύω (serve). (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

ל"ועיל (be useful), תועלת (advantage, behalf, benefit, gain, good, profit, sake, use, usefulness, utility, value). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

haszon (advantage, benefit, boot, earnings, emoluments, gain, gainings, gains, lucre, plunder, proceeds, profit, return, spoil, use, utility), elõnyére van, elõny (advantage, behoof, benefit, preference, profit, stead, vantage, virtue). (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

faedah (profit). (various references)

   

Italian

  

servire (answer, attend, attend to, attendant, be a steady customer, be of use, boy, deal, dish, dish out, handle, help, make use, operate, servant, serve, to serve, use, wait), essere utile, utilizzare (exploit, make use of, use, utilise, utilize), giovare (be good, be useful, profit, take advantage). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

"斐 (effect, result, use, worth). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

かい (assembly, association, being in between, buyer, buying, club, concerning oneself with, counter for occurrences, effect, -floor, large, low rank, lower order, mediation, meeting, mystery, oar, paddle, party, purchase, result, scull, shell, shellfish, stories, subordinate, the feelings of the people, together, use, wonder, worth). (various references)

   

Korean 

  

이익 (Behalf, GAIN, Profit, profits). (various references)

   

Manx

  

vondeishal (benefit, profit), foaynoo (availment, consequence, essence, fame, fettle, form, function, import, importance, order, reputation, state, utility, value, worth), chyndaa gys vondeish, baardagh. (various references)

   

Papiamen

  

probechá. (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

availay

   

Portuguese

  

auxiliar (accessorial, accomodate, adjunct, adjuvant, aid, ancillary, assist, assistant, auxilary, auxiliary, back, cad, candle-holder, favor, favour, friend, hand, handy man, help, helper, lend a hand, minister, ministerial, patronize, preventer, protect, relieve, second, secondary, subsidiary, succor, succour, support), aproveitar (appropriate, intend for, profit, take, utilize), ajudar (abet, accomodate, aid, assist, back, befriend, benefit, encourage, further, help, lend a hand, minister, pilot, relieve, serve, subserve, succor, succour, support, to help), vantagem (advantage, behoof, benefit, better, bisque, boon, boot, catch, convenience, gain, good, interest, odds, profit, purchase, utility, vantage), valer-se de (betake), utilizar-se de (utilize), utilidade (advantage, availability, benefit, good, subservience, use, utility, value), proveito (acquisition, advantage, benefit, boot, fruit, gain, good, improvement, interest, profit, return, stead), lucro (benefit, cleanup, emolument, gain, interest, lucre, plunder, profit, return, yield), defesa (advantage, aegis, behoof, blindage, boot, breastwork, bunce, cover-point, defence, defense, egis, fender, fireguard, household troops, interdiction, maintenance, parry, pleading, preservation, profit, protection, save, security, shield, spar, tower, vindication, ward), beneficiar (advantage, be favorable, be favourable, benefit, boot, do well, favor, favour, improve, profit), benefício (advantage, behoof, benefaction, benefit, boon, gain, good, preference, profit). (various references)

   

Romanian

  

avantaj (account, advantage, benefit, boon, convenience, edge, gain, good, interest, odds, plus, point, profit, vantage), ajuta (abet, accomodate, advantage, aid, answer, assist, back up, befriend, benefit, carry, carry through, comfort, encourage, fillip, help, minister to, promote, prop, push, relieve, second, serve, succor, succour, support, sustain), utilitate (availability, convenience, expedience, expediency, service, use, usefulness, utility), servi (assist, attend, help, minister to, pitch, serve, set a dish on the table, wait on), oferi (accord, afford, bid, exhibit, extend, give, hold forth, offer, proffer, put up, show, stand, stretch, yield), folosi (affect, anticipate, apply, benefit, boot, dispose, employ, impress, make use of, occupy, practise, put forth, seize, stand smb. in good stead, turn to account, use, utilize, wield), folos (account, advantage, behoof, benefit, boot, catch, efficaciousness, emolument, gain, profit, service, stead, use, utility), fi de folos (be of service to, profit), da (accord, administer, afford, beat, bestow, bind, deal, deliver, deliver up, extend, fetch, find, gift, give, give away, grant, hallo, hand, inflict, launch, lend, offer, pass, pay, push, reach, render, restore, return, sell, send, set, sound, sprout, yea, yes, yield). (various references)

   

Russian 

  

выгода (account, advantage, benefit, catch, interest, profit, velvet), быть полезным (agree), польза (advantage, behoof, benefit, favor, favour, good, profit, use, wholesomeness). (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

pomoći (assist, bale out, give a hand, help, help out, stand by, succor, succour, tide, tide over), korist (availability, behalf, benefit, boon, interest, prize, profit, sake, stead, utility, value), iskoristiti (draw on, employ, exploit, improve, make the most of, use, utilize), dobitak (gainings, makings). (various references)

   

Spanish

  

aprovechar (benefit, draw on, draw upon, embrace, exploit, harness, improve, make use of, push, seize, take, take advantage of, tap, turn to good account, use, utilize). (various references)

   

Swedish

  

tjäna till, gagna (be of use to, benefit, consume, serve). (various references)

   

Thai

  

ใช้ประโยชน์, ให้ประโยชน์, เป็นประโยชน์ (beneficial), ประโยชน์. (various references)

   

Turkish

  

avantaj (advance, advantage, benefit, head start, odds, start, vantage, whip hand), yararı olmak (help, profit, redound), yarar (account, advantage, benefit, convenience, efficacy, gain, grist to the mill, stead, use, utility), yaramak (agree, agree with, be of service to, benefit, correspond, do for, lend itself to, profit, serve, suit), kâr (avails, benefit, capital, catch, fruit, gain, gainings, increment, melon, pay dirt, profit, return), işe yaramak (answer the purpose, be useful, come in handy, serve the purpose, work), fayda (advantage, benefit, grist, handiness, profit, service, stead, use, usefulness, utility). (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

користь (account, advantage, benefit, convenience, emolument, gain, good, profit, use), вигода (accommodation, account, advantage, behoof, boot, capital, emolument, profit, spoil), бути корисним (agree, be of service, be useful, suit), допомагати (abet, accommodate, advantage, assist, beet, benefit, bestead, boot, boot out, cater, forward, lend a hand, oblige, promote, see through). (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

điều có lợi. (various references)

   

Welsh

  

tycio (prosper, succeed), llesa/u (advantage, benefit, boot), lles (advancement, advantage, behoof, benefit, boot, good, profit), buddio (profit), budd (advancement, behoof, benefit, gain, profit). (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Avail

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Latin500 BCE-Modern

possum posse potum. (various references)

French1500-Modern

servir. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Avail

Derivations

Words beginning with "avail": availabilities, availability, available, availableness, availablenesses, availably, availed, availing, avails. (additional references)

Words ending with "avail": reavail, travail. (additional references)

Words containing "avail": bioavailabilities, bioavailability, bioavailable, interavailabilities, interavailability, nonavailabilities, nonavailability, reavailed, reavailing, reavails, travailed, travailing, travails, unavailabilities, unavailability, unavailable, unavailing, unavailingly, unavailingness, unavailingnesses. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Avail" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aaal, Adalia, afaik, agail, Ajai, anveil, Asvall, Ataul, avaci, avacil, Avadi, Avai, avaible, availa, avain, avait, aval, avaline, avall, avaol, avay, aveil, avey, avia, aviah, avial, avias, aviil, avil, avili, avol, Avoniel, avril, Avrili, Awali, axail, Ayvalik, azael, Azali, bavai, Cavali, Eaval, eavil, evail, eveil, ivail, Javadi, Navratil, Navvabi, ovial, ravail, uvail, Va'ai, Vahaji. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Avail"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "avail" (pronounced uvā"l)
4u v ā" ltravail.
3-v ā" lprevail, surveil, unveil, Vail, Vale, veil.

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Avail

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "a-a-i-l-v"

-1 letter: lava, vail, vial.

-2 letters: aal, ail, ala, ava, lav, via.

-3 letters: aa, ai, al, la, li.

 Words containing the letters "a-a-i-l-v"
 

+1 letter: avails, gavial, saliva, salvia.

 

+2 letters: alluvia, arrival, availed, datival, gavials, ovarial, pahlavi, reavail, salivas, salvias, travail, vaginal, valiant, valonia, vanilla, variola, vatical, vedalia, velaria.

 

+3 letters: ablative, aestival, alluvial, archival, arrivals, availing, aventail, avicular, calvaria, carnival, cavalier, galivant, galvanic, javelina, lavalier, lavalike, lavation, laxative, malvasia, pahlavis, reavails, salivary, salivate, travails, vaccinal, valencia, valerian, valiance, valiancy, valiants, validate, valonias, vandalic, vanillas, variable, variably, varietal, variolar, variolas, vedalias, velamina, viatical, vicarial.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern
5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Photo Album
7. Quotations: Familiar
8. Quotations: Historic
9. Quotations: Fiction
10. Quotations: Non-fiction
11. Quotations: Speeches
12. Usage Frequency
13. Expressions
14. Expressions: Internet
15. Translations: Modern
16. Translations: Ancient
17. Abbreviations
18. Acronyms
19. Derivations
20. Rhymes
21. Anagrams
22. Bibliography


  

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