If there’s one thing most word nerds love, it’s a good game of Scrabble (or Words With Friends, for the more tech-addicted among us). Of course, having a good vocabulary isn’t everything if you want to win Scrabble games: Strategy plays a big part, too, whether it’s finding the perfect place on the board to play a word or making sure that you cut off scoring opportunities for your opponent. But knowing a lot of words is certainly helpful, especially when it comes to dealing with a difficult rack of letters, maximizing the number of words you can get points for in one turn, or spotting and playing that elusive “bingo,” a seven- or eight-letter word that earns a 50-point bonus. Learn the words on this Scrabble cheat sheet and you’ll raise your odds of victory.
Scrabble Words With Only Vowels
EIEIO might be fine for Old MacDonald, but it’s not so great to be faced with a string of vowels when you’re playing Scrabble or Words With Friends. Help yourself out of a jam with these words:
- Aa: A type of lava
- Ae: One (Scottish dialect)
- Ai: A type of sloth
- Eau: Water
- Oe: A Faroe Islands whirlwind
- Oi: An interjection
Words That Don’t Contain Any Vowels
Sometimes, you have the opposite problem: Somehow, you don’t have a single A, E, I, O, U, or even Y on your rack. Thankfully, W can stand in sometimes, if it’s a word of Welsh origin, and oddly enough, there are quite a few bits of onomatopoeia that are legal Scrabble words. Here are a some vowel-less options:
- Brr/Brrr: An indication of being cold
- Crwth: A stringed instrument
- Cwm: A rounded valley
- Hm/Hmm: A sound made by someone thinking
- Mm: A sound of agreement
- Nth: Relating to an infinitely large number
- Pht/Phpht: An expression of annoyance
- Pfft: An expression of sarcastic disbelief or of a sudden ending
- Pst/Psst: An utterance to get someone’s attention
- Sh/Shh: A request for silence
- Tsk/Tsktsk: To express disapproval
- Zzz: The sound of snoring
A, E, I, O, and U can make you cry out, “Why???”
Photo by Listener42 (Flickr)
Scrabble Words With Q But No U
It’s so frustrating to have a 10-point Q sitting on your rack when you have no U to work with. After all, most of the time, Q needs a U. But there are a few exceptions you might want to memorize:
- Faqir: A Muslim ascetic
- Niqab/Niqaab: A veil worn by Muslim women
- Qabala: A system of Jewish mysticism
- Qaid: A Muslim leader
- Qajaq: Kayak
- Qanat: A network of underground tunnels
- Qat: A plant with leaves that have a stimulant effect if chewed or steeped into tea
- Qi: Life force
- Qigong: A Chinese meditative art
- Qindar/Qintar/Qindarka: A unit of Albanian currency
- Qoph: A letter of the Hebrew alphabet
- Qwerty: A type of computer keyboard
- Sheqel: A unit of Israeli currency
- Tranq: Tranquilizer
Uncommon Scrabble Words With Z or X
Sure, there’s “zoo” or “ax,” but after that, people often start to run out of ideas quickly, especially when the pressure’s on to make a move and not hold up the game. Here are some other words to use up these tricky letters that you probably hadn’t thought of:
| Adz: A wood-cutting tool | Banjax: To ruin |
| Adzuki/Azuki: An Asian bean | Bombyx: A type of moth |
| Azo: Containing nitrogen | Braxy: An infection found in sheep |
| Azole: A class of chemical compound | Calx: A type of mineral residue |
| Azure: Blue | Cylix/Kylix: A Greek cup |
| Baize: Woolen cloth | Exeunt: Exit the stage |
| Bazoo: Mouth | Exodos: A dramatic conclusion |
| Beezer: Nose | Exon: A part of a gene |
| Buzuki/Bouzouki: A Greek musical instrument | Galax: A species of herb |
| Cuz: Cousin | Ibex: A species of wild goat |
| Czar: An emperor | Ixia: A type of flowering plant |
| Diazo: A coloring process | Kex: A dried, hollow stalk |
| Feaze/Feeze: Excitement or alarm | Klaxon: A warning horn |
| Fritz: Not functional | Lexeme: A unit of linguistic meaning |
| Furzy: Like a furze, a type of shrub | Moxa: The leaves of an Asian mugwort plant |
| Fuzee: A pulley in a timepiece | Nixie: A water sprite |
| Orzo: A rice-shaped pasta | Noyaux: A type of liqueur |
| Oyez: A cry used to open a court session | Oryx: A species of antelope |
| Yutz: A foolish or inept person | Pyx: A container for Catholic communion wafers |
| Yuzu: A citrus fruit | Twixt: Between |
| Za: Pizza (really) | Vernix: The substance that covers a newborn baby |
| Zarf: A holder for a handle-less coffee cup | Xebec: A Mediterranean sailing ship |
| Zax: A slate-cutting tool (Z and X!) | Xi: A letter of the Greek alphabet |
| Zed: The letter Z | Xu: A unit of Vietnamese currency |
| Zek: A Soviet inmate | Xyst: An athletic training area in ancient Greece |
The “Holy Grail” You’ll Never Get to Play
Here’s a fun fact: The highest-scoring Scrabble word you could possibly ever play is “oxyphenbutazone.” However, there’s almost no chance that you’ll ever be able to use this information to get the highest possible score in a single turn, as you’d have to be able to play it across three triple-word scores and have eight of the letters already on the board in the perfect positions to build this word around. Ideally, you’d also be playing letters on those squares and playing the P and Z on the two double-letter score squares in that row or column. For the maximum possible score, there are also specific words that you’d have to be able to place all of your letters before, creating seven new words (I told you this was impossible). But if you manage to perfectly pull off this absurdly improbable move, it’s worth 1,778 points.