I noticed that every shout has place for 3 words in the menu. What's confusing me is that I found a shout which already has all of the 3 words listed, but greyed out so I can learn them, while others (for example the fire damage shout) only have one word listed and greyed out.
Are there really 3 words to any shout?
Yes, all shouts involve 3 words.
Here is releveant information on the words:
You can learn thu'um words even if you dont have dragon souls.
However dragonsouls are needed to activate a shout word.— Wikia - Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Word Wall
The player can choose to only vocalize part of a dragon shout which will lower the recharge time of the shout but cause the shout to be weaker. In an interview Todd Howard said every shout has 3 words and there is 1 word per word wall.
So, there are three states for a word:
Invisible: The word hasn't been learned nor activated.
Grayed out: The word has been learned, but not activated yet.
White: The word has been learned and been activated.
Here is a full list of the 24 dragon scouts:
FUS RO DAH: Force Balance Push (Unrelenting Force)
IIZ SLEN NUS: Ice Flesh Statue (Ice Form)
STRUN BAH QO: Storm Wrath Lightning (Storm Call)
YOL TOOR SHUL: Fire Inferno Sun (Fire Breath)
TIID KLO UL: Time Sand Eternity (Slow Time)
WULD NAH KEST: Whilwind, Fury, Tempest (Whilwind Sprint)
RAAN MIR TAH: Animal, Allegiance, Pack (Animal Allegiance)
SU GRAH DUN: Air, Battle, Grace (Elemental Fury)
FIN ZI GRON: Fade, Sprint, Blind (Become Ethereal)
FO KRAH DIIN: Frost Cold Freeze (Frost Breath)
ZUL MEY GUT: Voice Fool Far (Throw Voice)
ZUN HAAL VIIK: Weapon, Hand, Defeat (Disarm)
LOK VAR KOOR: Sky Spring Summer (Clear Skies)
HUN KAAR ZOOL: Hero Champion Legend (Call of Valor)
JOOR ZAH FRUL: Mortal Finite Temporary (Dragonrend)
KRII LUN AUS: Kill, Leech, Suffer (Marked for Death)
LAAS YA NIR: Life, Seek, Hunt (Aura Whisper)
OD AH VIING: Snow Hunter Wing (Call Dragon)
KAAN DREM OV: Kyne, Peace, Trust (Kyne's Peace)
FAAS RU MAAR: Fear Run Terror (Dismaying Shout)
SLEN TIID VO: Flesh, Time, Undo (Ressurect Dead Dragon, not available to player, Alduin)
N/A: N/A (Meteor Swarm, not available to player, Alduin)
FIIK, LO, SAH: Mirror, Deceive, Phantom (N/A, not available to player, Greybeards)
VEN, MUL, RIIK: Wind, Strong, Gale (N/A, not available to player, Alduin)
— See Wikia - Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dragon Shouts for more details.
Actually, not every shout is 3 words. There is a four-word shout in the Dragonborn DLC. When you
fight Miraak, he uses a FOUR word shout: ZII LOS DII DU. He uses this shout to instantly kill his dragon slaves.
However, this shout is not attainable by the player, so all shouts that the player can get have 3 words.
There are 3 words in every shout. The difference in this case, I presume, is that for one, you have found all the words but not gotten enough dragon souls to learn them, whereas for the other, you have not even found all the words yet.
I would like to add that you ALWAYS find those words in order.
For example, FUS RO DAH
you will always learn Fus first, then Ro, then Dah.
It doesn't matter which word wall you see first. You always learn first word first, second first, then the third.
I have no idea what the ingame explanation is. I mean the writing is written in the wall. However, it doesn't become permanent till you see it.
The ancient carvings on Word Walls can vary, and are dependent upon what Words of Power the Dragonborn already knows at the time of the encounter with the wall.
For example, if the Dragonborn were to learn the first Word of Power for Animal Allegiance from Ancient's Ascent, then the wall would display the first carving in the table below. However, if the Dragonborn was to learn the first word from Angarvunde, then the first carving would be displayed in that location instead.
If the Dragonborn was to later visit Ancient's Ascent to learn the second word, the carving would be the second carving in the table as the first word has already been learned.
