AD
Worth 3 points before any premium square, and the 44th lowest-scoring of 96 — tied with 7 others.
AD extends into 17 three-letter words, which is the 8th most extendable of 96 — tied with 5 others. That is the number worth memorising: a two-letter word is a place to put tiles, but a well-hooked one is a place to put them where the board stays open.
Every hook
- B→BAD
- C→CAD
- D→DAD
- F→FAD
- G→GAD
- H→HAD
- L→LAD
- M→MAD
- P→PAD
- R→RAD
- S→SAD
- T→TAD
- W→WAD
- D→ADD
- O→ADO
- S→ADS
- Z→ADZ
Not all of them are equally reachable, which a bare count of 17 hides. AD hooks on 15 distinct letters, and the ones you are likeliest to be holding are O (45% of opening racks), R (36% of opening racks) and T (36% of opening racks). The rarest is Z, at 7%.
How often you can actually play it
Out of an opening rack, 11.48% of the time you hold the letters for AD outright, the 26th likeliest of 96 — tied with 7 others. Counting a blank as whichever letter is missing lifts that to 18.38%, though spending one of the two blanks on a two-letter word is rarely the play. Exact hypergeometrics over the 100-tile bag, not a simulation.