In Scrabble, a “bingo” is what happens when you play all seven tiles from your rack in a single turn. The reward? A 50-point bonus on top of whatever the word itself scores. In competitive Scrabble, bingos regularly decide games — a single well-placed seven- or eight-letter word can swing the score by 70 to … Read more
From a Jobless Architect to the World’s Favorite Word Game Scrabble is played in 121 countries, has been produced in 29 languages, and more than 150 million sets have been sold worldwide. But this cultural institution almost didn’t happen. The game was rejected by every major game manufacturer for over a decade before a chance … Read more
The Q Tile: Scrabble’s Most Feared Letter Drawing the Q tile in Scrabble triggers immediate anxiety for most players. At 10 points, it’s the joint-highest-value tile in the game — but it’s also the hardest to play. The overwhelming majority of Q words require a U, and there are only four U tiles in the … Read more
Scrabble Is a Board Game, Not Just a Word Game Most casual Scrabble players approach the game as a vocabulary contest: whoever knows more words wins. But at the competitive level, Scrabble is fundamentally a board game where spatial strategy, premium square control, and defensive positioning matter as much as — sometimes more than — … Read more
Why 6-Letter Words Are the Sweet Spot in Scrabble In Scrabble strategy, 7-letter words get all the glory because they earn the 50-point bingo bonus. But 6-letter words are arguably more important to your overall game. They’re easier to find, more frequently playable, and often score just as many total points when you factor in … Read more
Drowning in Consonants? These Words Will Rescue Your Rack You look down at your Scrabble rack and see B, C, G, K, N, R, T. Not a single vowel. Your opponent just played a 45-point word and you’re stuck staring at an unplayable mess. Sound familiar? Consonant-heavy racks are one of Scrabble’s most frustrating situations, … Read more
When Your Rack Is All Vowels: How to Turn Disaster Into Points Every Scrabble player knows the sinking feeling: you draw your tiles and find A, E, I, O, U staring back at you. Maybe there’s a lonely consonant in there somewhere, but your rack is overwhelmingly vowel-heavy. Your instinct is to exchange, but that … Read more
Making the Most of Scrabble’s Trickiest High-Value Tile The letter J is worth 8 points in Scrabble — the same as X. But while X has dozens of flexible short words and works with every vowel, J is considerably more limited. There’s no valid two-letter J word in the standard TWL dictionary (JO is valid … Read more
Why X Is the Most Underrated Tile in Scrabble At 8 points in Scrabble and Words With Friends, X is the third-highest-value tile in the game. But unlike Q (which desperately needs a U) or Z (which gets all the attention), X quietly delivers massive scores through short, flexible words that fit almost any board … Read more
Why Z Is Your Secret Weapon in Word Games The letter Z is worth 10 points in Scrabble and Words With Friends — tied with Q for the highest tile value in the game. But unlike Q, which usually needs a U to function, Z is remarkably flexible. It pairs with every vowel, works in … Read more