The B is not one of the most useful letters. It’s most often used in shorter words, preferably on a premium square to increase its value, and preferably to help you get rid of your other less useful letters. Good B-words for this are:
BEZ an antler on a deer’s horn
BIZ colloquial for business
JIB same as jibe
WAB dialect form of web
BAC the baccalaureate, a set of examinations intended to qualify successful candidates for higher education
FUB to cheat
There are also some B-eautiful words you can learn that use unusual letter combinations:
BOOAI as in up the booai, thoroughly lost
BRAAI South African barbecue
OBEAH type of witchcraft
BRAAI and OBEAH can also be verbs, so as well as BRAAIS and OBEAHS, you can also have BRAAIED, BRAAIING, OBEAHED and OBEAHING.
There are some U-less (but far from useless) words that contain B with Q:
NIQAB, NIQAAB Muslim veil
QIBLA direction of Mecca, to which Muslims turn when praying
By Barry Grossman
Barry is a leading UK Scrabble player and winner of several tournaments. He is the author of Scrabble for Beginners (Chambers), Need to Know Scrabble, Scrabble – Play to Win and The Little Book of Scrabble Trickster. He has also contributed to numerous other books on the subject of words and word-games, has been a series champion of Channel 4’s Countdown, and has written four comedy series for BBC Radio 4. He lives in Hertford.
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