Rules and Strategies for playing Scrabble and Words with Friends

By - 03/09/2023

When it comes to Scrabble, there aren’t very many rules to the game, but there are a few worth noting. The rules worth noting are essential for new players to understand as they explain the basic gameplay.

Knowing what words are allowed and not allowed is the most basic rule of gameplay. Before you begin the game, you, as a group, need to decide what dictionary will be used during challenges. You can use the official Scrabble dictionary, which is published by Merriam-Webster. This dictionary is available online or in print. You can also use the official Scrabble page by Hasbro. Words that are not allowed during gameplay include foreign words, proper nouns, and abbreviations. Hyphenated words or words that require an apostrophe are also prohibited.

Knowing how much each letter is worth is also vital for gameplay. Knowing each letter's worth allows you to maximize your score when playing words. Q and Z are the highest scoring words, while your vowels and frequently used constants are worth the least. Here is a breakdown of letter values:

• 10 points: Q and Z
• 8 points: J and X
• 5 points: K
• 4 points: F, H, V, W, and Y
• 3 points: B. C, M, and P
• 2 points: D and G
• 1 point: A, E, I, L, N, O, S, T, R, and U

When it comes down to placing your tiles, you may only lay tiles down in one direction. You must also stay in the column or row that you originally started laying tiles down in. There is no going diagonal in Scrabble or other similar word games. You may place tiles at the beginning or end of a word that already exists to create a new word, but again you must lay tiles down in a single direction.

Hooking in Scrabble is where you place your tiles to form a second word using another word that is already on the board. Hooking can be done in one of three ways:

• Add more letters to a word already on the board
• Add a second word at a right angle to an existing word. You can do this by using one of the letters in the current word, or you can add a letter to the end of the beginning of the existing word to expand on that word and form a word that runs parallel to it.
• You may also place an entire word parallel to an existing word, as long as all of the tiles touching each other form valid words.

There are several special rules in Scrabble or bonus rules, as some people like to call them. One of those rules is the “Bingo” rule, which means if you play all 7 of your tiles in one turn, you can score 50 extra points. Using bonus squares on the board is a great way to score lots of points. Covering two triple word squares with one word is known as the “triple-triple.” Bluffing is also allowed during a game of Scrabble, but this strategy doesn’t work for online versions. During board gameplay, you may play a fake word, and it will count as long as nobody challenges it. If you are challenged, you will be penalized, so consider the risk before taking it. When in doubt, use our tool that unscrambles letters in words, and allow you to check playable words.

Highest Scoring Scrabble Words and Plays in History

The highest-scoring word played in Scrabble was “caziques,” which is a variation of “cacique” and refers to a native Indian chief who presides over areas of Spanish culture, but it is also a type of bird. On its own, the word scores 28 points, but a man named Karl Khoshnaw played it and scored 392 points thanks to the Bingo rules and bonus squares. Some other high scoring words over the years include freezers, breezier, gherkins, informativeness, reconsideration, qwertys, freezing, and braziers.

Tips and Tricks for Placing Words

One of the greatest things about Scrabble, Words with Friends, and similar word games is that you don’t have to have a large vocabulary to score big. The way you win at these kinds of games all comes down to the placement of your tiles. Here are some tile placing tricks to keep in mind during your gameplay:

• Try to get a “Bingo.” Every time you use all seven tiles in your tray, you score an additional 50 points. You can also combine your “bingo” with bonus squares to further maximize your points. “Bingo” only applies to Scrabble, not other games like Words with Friends.
• Master the concept of “hooking.” This is where you add a single letter to a word on the board to create a second word. For example, if somebody played “cat,” you can add an “s” to the end of the word and create another word that starts or ends with “s.”
• Memorize as many two-letter words as possible to increase your chances of making parallel words.
• Never hang onto the “q” in hopes of getting a “u” because, in the end, any unplayed tiles will count against you. The same thing goes for “z,” you want to get rid of those tiles as soon as you can. Use our word finder tool to help you figure out what words you can play that use those letters.
• Pay attention to what board you are playing on. The Words with Friends board layout is different than the Scrabble layout. Knowing what board you are playing on allows you to maximum points.

Dealing with Leftover Tiles

There are 100 tiles in the game. 98 of those tiles are letters; the other two are blanks. The game ends when the last move has been made, or the last tile has been played. At the end of the game, you must account for any leftover tiles. All players must subtract the value of leftover tiles in their tray from their current score. If a player has no remaining tiles, they are allowed to add the amount of each player’s unplayed tiles to their score. The person with the highest score wins.