Word Games
Five families of word game, five different questions. This page maps each one to the tool that answers it, and explains the scoring rule behind it.
Five families of word game, five different questions
Most word games look similar from the outside and are completely different problems from the inside. What changes is the constraint you are given: a rack, a grid, a pattern, or a set of coloured tiles. Pick the tool that matches the constraint.
| Game | What you are given | The question | Tool |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wordle and its clones | Five-letter words, six guesses, three colours per tile | Which words fit the greens, yellows and greys? | Wordle solver |
| Scrabble, Words With Friends | A rack of seven tiles and a board with existing letters | What can I build from these tiles, with this prefix or suffix? | Unscrambler, word finder |
| Anagram games | All the letters of the answer, shuffled | Which word uses every letter exactly once? | Anagram solver |
| Crosswords | A clue and an enumeration, partly filled by crossing answers | Which words fit these squares? | Crossword solver |
| Boggle, word-search puzzles | A grid of letters and a minimum length | Which dictionary words exist at all? | Word finder by length |
The scoring rule behind each game
Scrabble
Each tile has a fixed value, and the square bonuses multiply letters and then the whole word. The standard English values:
| Value | Letters |
|---|---|
| 1 | A E I L N O R S T U |
| 2 | D G |
| 3 | B C M P |
| 4 | F H V W Y |
| 5 | K |
| 8 | J X |
| 10 | Q Z |
| 0 | Blank (any letter, scores nothing) |
Two consequences for play: a seven-tile "bingo" adds 50 points, so using all seven tiles is usually worth more than the tile values suggest; and the rare letters (J, X, Q, Z) are worth more as a single play on a bonus square than as part of a long word elsewhere.
Words With Friends
Similar shape, different table. B, C and M are worth 4 rather than 3; G and H are worth 3 (up from 2, down from 4); L, N and U are worth 2; V is 5 and Y is 3. The board's bonus layout also differs. A word that is optimal in one game can be mediocre in the other, which is why the two have separate dictionaries — and why a word that is valid in one may be rejected in the other.
Wordle
No points: six attempts, and the only score is how many guesses you used. The information value of a guess is what matters early — five different common letters teach more than a guess that repeats a green letter in its known position. This is why two fixed opening words outperform one clever one.
Anagrams and crosswords
Anagram games score by word length or by speed; the constraint is exhaustive letter use. Crosswords score nothing at all — the puzzle is solved or it is not, and the difficulty comes from clue interpretation rather than from word knowledge.
Why a word that works in one game fails in another
The three big games use three different word lists, and they disagree at the edges:
- Scrabble (North America) uses a list that excludes proper nouns and most abbreviations but includes many obscure two- and three-letter words.
- Words With Friends uses a broader list that accepts some words Scrabble rejects, and rejects some Scrabble accepts.
- Wordle has a private answer list plus a larger list of allowed guesses. The answer list is deliberately common vocabulary; the guess list is not.
The tools on this site use one general English dictionary of 152,405 words. It is a superset of what most players need, but a word appearing here is not proof that a particular game will accept it. Treat the output as "this is a real English word", then check the game's own rules if the stakes are high.
Practice that actually improves play
- Learn the two-letter words. In Scrabble they are the difference between playing and passing; there are only about a hundred in the standard list.
- Count the board, not your rack. A seven-letter word that opens a triple-word lane for your opponent is worse than a four-letter word that blocks it.
- In Wordle, spend guesses on information. Once the list is under about ten candidates, switch from testing letters to guessing answers.
- In crosswords, fill the crossings first. Every letter that comes from another answer cuts the pattern list by roughly 80%.
Questions
Which tool should I use for a Scrabble rack?
The unscrambler. Enter all seven tiles; it returns every word they can build. If the board already fixes a starting or ending letter, add that filter — it is the single biggest reduction you can make.
Do these tools know the board?
No. They know words, not positions. Scrabble and Words With Friends scoring depends on the board, which no word list can supply.
Why do the tools share one dictionary?
Because the alternative — a separate list per game — means the same word is "valid" on one page and missing on another, which is worse for the reader. One list with a stated scope is easier to reason about.