This Scrabble word finder reads your rack the way a good opponent would: every word your tiles can make, priced with the tile values the dictionary actually uses. Pick NWL2023 or Collins before you search, because the same seven letters can answer differently in each. Stuck mid-game? Search. Somebody challenged your last play? Search again. Or paste yesterday’s rack once the game is over and see what you missed.
Not everything is a rack. A jumbled single word belongs to the anagram solver, a bigger mess goes to the word descrambler, and when you only want words built from all of your tiles, making words from these letters is the narrower search.
How to use the Scrabble word finder
- Enter your rack. Type the seven letters in front of you, any order. A blank is just a ?. It scores zero, and since a standard set holds only two, the tool stops you at two.
- Pick your dictionary. NWL2023 covers North America; Collins (CSW24) covers most of the rest of the world, World Championship included. Words With Friends gets a separate mode here, because both its word list and its tile values are different.
- Add what is already on the board. The step nearly everyone forgets, and the one that pays. Building off the E sitting on the board? Put E in Must include. Extending a word at either end? Starts with and Ends with do that. A lane only five squares long? Set the length filter before you fall in love with an eight-letter play. For a fixed shape like _A_E_, the word generator by pattern was built for it.
- Read the results by score, then by position. The top word is a starting point, not a verdict; check where it lands and what it opens before you commit. Hunting by prefix or suffix instead? words that start with and words that end in go deeper than one rack ever will.
A worked example
A E I N R S T is one of those racks that plays itself. RETAINS, RETINAS, STAINER, STEARIN, all seven-letter words off seven ordinary tiles. Here is what the opening play is worth:
| Seven tiles at one point each | 7 |
| First move covers the centre star, which doubles the word (7 × 2) | 14 |
| Bingo bonus for playing all seven tiles | +50 |
| Score for the play | 64 |
Without the centre star, the same word is worth 57 before any other premium squares. Now change one tile. Swap the T for a blank and the rack becomes A E I N R S ?. The tool will show you the words the blank can complete, and it will mark that tile as a zero-point substitute, so the score you see is the score you will actually get.
Which dictionary should you choose?
The two big lists overlap enough to feel interchangeable, right up until a word you thought was safe gets challenged. Words are settled by the list your game uses, so find it out before move one.
| NWL2023 (NASPA Word List) | Collins Scrabble Words 2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| Used in | United States, Canada | United Kingdom and most other countries, and the World Championship |
| Size | Roughly 196,000 words | Roughly 280,000 words |
| Two-letter words | 107 | 127 |
| Overlap | Nearly all of its words are also valid in Collins | Also accepts many words that NWL2023 rejects |
Playing at home? Just ask before the first move. In doubt all round: NWL2023 for North America, Collins elsewhere. Nearly everything NWL takes is legal in Collins too; the reverse is not true. A Collins-only word, one NWL has never heard of, is a challenge waiting to happen, so be careful.
The highest score is not always the best play
Points are what the finder sees. A strong player checks three things it cannot see.
Your rack leave. What stays matters as much as what goes. A four-tile play that leaves A, E, R, S, T behind sets up next turn far better than a slightly higher play that leaves V, V and a U staring at you.
What you open for your opponent. A 30-point play that drops an S beside an open triple-word square can hand them 50 on the reply. Look at squares around the word before committing. I learned this the hard way with EXIST once and have not played inside THAT square since.
Premium squares. Short plays on lively squares routinely beat long plays on bland rows. A Z landing on a triple letter scores 30 for that one tile.
Two results within a few points? Take the one that keeps the better rack and gives away less.
Blank tiles
A blank pretends to be any letter and scores zero. That combination makes it more valuable as the last piece of a bingo than as a filler in a short word.
Every result marks its blanks, so nothing is standing in for what you cannot see. If a play beats the next best option only by a few points and spends the blank to do it, keep the blank.
Words worth learning
Two-letter words are what parallel play runs on: lay one alongside a word already down and you score the word, the crosses, and every pair in between. The chips below show face value, and all of them are legal in NWL2023 and Collins.
- Q10I1
- Z10A1
- Z10O1
- X8I1
- X8U1
- J8O1
- A1X8
- O1X8
Q without U. A Q with no U beside it is the most feared tile in the bag. QI is the emergency exit; QAT, QADI, QOPH, FAQIR and TRANQ come after that.
The heavy tiles. J and X score 8; Q and Z score 10. The fastest home for each of them is one of the words with letter lists, where you pick the letter and see every word that contains it.
Tile values and distribution
A standard English set has 100 tiles, including two blanks. The number beside each letter is how many of that tile are in the bag.
- 0points
- 0blank ×2
- 1point
- E1×12
- A1×9
- I1×9
- O1×8
- N1×6
- R1×6
- T1×6
- L1×4
- S1×4
- U1×4
- 2points
- D2×4
- G2×3
- 3points
- B3×2
- C3×2
- M3×2
- P3×2
- 4points
- F4×2
- H4×2
- V4×2
- W4×2
- Y4×2
- 5points
- K5×1
- 8points
- J8×1
- X8×1
- 10points
- Q10×1
- Z10×1
Words with Friends uses a different board layout and different tile values, which is why it has its own mode here.
Does it work for Words with Friends, Scrabble GO and Crossplay?
Words With Friends keeps a different word list and a different score chart, so it has its own mode here plus a dedicated Words with Friends word finder. Wordfeud prices its tiles differently again, which is why its players want the Wordfeud cheat.
Scrabble GO and NYT Crossplay sit close enough to a real list to plan with, but the apps update whenever they like. If an app refuses something this tool accepted, believe the app. It owns the board.
Wheel-and-tile games like Wordscapes and Text Twist never price letters at all, so they live on their own pages: the Wordscapes Solver, the Text Twist solver and Word Cookies answers.
Is using a Scrabble word finder cheating?
In a sanctioned tournament, yes: outside help of any kind is barred. Between friends, it is whatever you two agreed, and that is the end of the rulebook. What most people actually use a finder for is quieter: checking a challenged word, practising a rack, or replaying a loss afterward to find the play they missed. The last one teaches the most.
Frequently asked questions
How does a Scrabble word finder work?
It reads your letters against a full dictionary and lists every word your tiles can build, priced with standard values. Filters exist to cut a list down to what your board can take.
How many blank tiles are in Scrabble?
Two. Each can represent any letter and scores zero points.
How many tiles are in a Scrabble set?
100, including the two blanks. Each player holds seven at a time.
How much is a bingo worth?
Fifty bonus points for playing all seven tiles from your rack in one turn, added to the normal score of the word.
What is the difference between NWL2023 and Collins?
They are two different official word lists. NWL2023 is used in the United States and Canada; Collins is larger and used in most other countries and in international competition. Some words are valid in one and not the other.
Is QI a valid Scrabble word?
Yes, in both NWL2023 and Collins. It is worth 11 points and is the most useful way to get rid of a Q.
What are the best two-letter words in Scrabble?
QI, ZA and ZO score 11 each. XI, XU, JO, AX and OX score 9. Which two-letter words are valid depends on your dictionary.
Can I use it for a word that is already partly on the board?
Yes. Enter your rack, then put the board letter in Must include, or use Starts with and Ends with if it sits at either end of your word. For a fixed shape with gaps, try the word generator by pattern.
Why does the tool show a different score from my game?
The premium squares are outside the tool’s view. What you get here is face value; the double and triple squares you add yourself before committing.