For instance?

"Aa," he offered. "A lava flow. Ai. A three-toed sloth."

There are 96 acceptable two-letter words that may be employed in Scrabble play, according to the National Scrabble Association.

If you were a member of the Columbus, Ohio, Scrabble Club you not only would know that, but you might, as well, be able to recite most of the 96.

Club members also know most of the 21 "q" words that do not require an accompanying "u," including tranq (short for tranquilizer), qat (a tropical plant common to Africa and Arabia) and qwerty (the keyboard arrangement of a traditional typewriter).

The Scrabble Joe Miccio plays is not "kitchen-table Scrabble," the sobriquet that hard-core players have hung on the dawdling, languorous version of play in which some engage when it rains on vacation or the cable is out.

Club and tournament Scrabble is a different animal.

It is timed with a chess clock (each player gets 25 minutes to make all of his plays).

It is played with "pro tiles" (smooth on both sides to prevent cheating by tactile identification while drawing letters).

Even at the beginner level of club or tournament play, scores are much higher than they are for "kitchen-table Scrabble."

Miccio pointed out, "I just played a Scrabble tournament in Elizabethtown, Ky. My highest score was 390, and I scored that twice. My average score is 338-340, and I'm at a low level. I'm a guppy."

"The really good players are piranhas," said Kate Kent, a Granville, Ohio, social worker and a regular at the Columbus club meetings.

"On the amateur level, I'm good. It's a passion of mine."

Neither she nor Miccio is playing at a level that would be competitive at the Division I level next month in Chicago at the National Scrabble Championship, where a cool $25,000 awaits the winner.

Joe Edley, a staff member at the Greenport, N.Y., offices of the National Scrabble Association, is a veteran competitor who will be in the thick of that championship.

Edley, who won the national title in 1980 and 1992, had never played the game until 1978, when he was 30.

Determined to play at a professional level, Edley said, ''I took a job as a night watchman.'' While working, he studied flashcards on which he had written letter jumbles. Living on the West Coast at the time, he quickly became one of the Bay Area's hottest players.

''Most people thought it was a lucky thing,'' Edley said of his first national championship. He added, however, ''I continued to improve, and I've never come in worse than fourth in a national championship.''

He uses Scrabble software programs to keep his game sharp. He explained, ''I use it as a tool to study strategy . . . game positions.''

During the nationals, he will play seven rounds a day for four days, then three rounds on the final day.

It is grueling, he said. He is 50, and believes that age can be a factor in long tournament play.

''The older you get, the less flexible you are,'' he said. ''I do tai chi, jump rope. I've done it before so I can do it again.''

Edley's game scores are generally in the range of 415-420 points.

That means he would typically beat Columbus club director Dan Brinkley by 100 points a game.

''But I would learn a lot of words I've never seen,'' Brinkley mused about such a match.

Brinkley considers himself a serious player. He has his own solid cherry Scrabble board. His average scores are in the 320-330 range.

He plays regularly against Miccio and other members of the club, and travels to two or three tournaments a year.

''When you go to Scrabble tournaments, you see a lot of older women, grandmother types,'' Miccio said. ''At the upper levels, you see a lot of computer geeks.

''I don't fit the stereotype,'' Miccio said of the latter, perhaps afraid of being portrayed as a doughy lump in double-knit with Scotch-taped horn-rims. ''I play racquetball. I lift weights. ''I just love the English language. I love words. I wish more young people would get involved with the English language and get off the computer.''

Not that the computer age has diminished the number of Scrabble players.

''There has been a proliferation of all aspects of the Scrabble culture,'' noted John Williams, executive director of the National Scrabble Association. ''More clubs, more tournaments, a higher level of play, computers and Internet play, more money.''

Williams' organization estimates that 33 million Americans play Scrabble, more than 10,000 of them members of the National Scrabble Association. More than 200 sanctioned Scrabble clubs meet regularly for play in the United States and Canada.

The Columbus club, sanctioned only nine months ago, has 15 members.

Some play for fun. Some have tournament aspirations.

''It's starting to be habit-forming,'' Miccio said. ''It's starting to scare me.''

Does that mean he's obsessed?

''Mike Harden,'' Miccio said. ''That's a good name. It's 20 points. That's good. It's one of those names like Tom Cruise, Chubby Checker or Garth Brooks. You can use either the first or last name in Scrabble play.''

''Garth?''

''It's an enclosed yard or garden.''

No, he's not obsessed.