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Words ending in A are often Latin-derived feminine nouns (FORMULA, VERTEBRA, LARVA, NEBULA) or borrowings from Italian and Spanish (PIZZA, TACO, SALSA, GALA). In English plural formation, some Latin-origin A-ending singulars take a -AE or -AS plural (FORMULA/FORMULAE or FORMULAS), which trips up even native speakers.
In Scrabble, A-ending words are common hook targets — adding an S converts many of them into plurals. But A-ending words themselves are usable for unusual tile-management: hooking an A onto the end of a word already on the board to form a new word parallel is a classic tight-play move. Memorise NA, MA, PA, BA, FA as 2-letter A-enders.
In crosswords, A-endings are frequent in proper nouns (though those aren’t in our list), geographic terms (AMERICA, INDIA, CUBA), and feminine Latin roots. Classical Latin diminutive -A (as in VILLA, SCALA) is still productive in English scientific vocabulary.
5,549 words finish with A in this list — 1.5% of our dictionary. The tile itself is worth 1 point in Scrabble.
The top-scoring A-ending word is ZYZZYVA at 43 points (standard TWL letter values, before premium squares). Ending a word on a premium square while forming a second word along the perpendicular axis can easily double or triple this score.
At 2 letters, AA is the minimum we have ending in A. Compact A-final words like this are how you extend board plays cheaply in Scrabble.