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Angriest anagrams

The eight-letter combination with the most anagrams is AEGINRST, with eleven. No obvious name suggests itself for this group, like the RETAINS group or the TEASING one, but I suppose we could call it the STEARING committee, or even the ANGRIEST brigade. ANGRIEST ANGSTIER… Read More

Great for the anagrams

The letters of the word RETAINS form a whopping eleven anagrams making it one of the best possible racks to have for bonuses. They are: ANESTRI plural of ANESTRUS ANTSIER more anxious NASTIER RATINES plural of RATINE, a material RESIANT old Scots word for… Read More

Eight-letter Gs

There are some nice eight-letter words with the one- point tiles and a G that all Scrabble players should know. Here are eight you can make with the letters AEILNRS + G. ALIGNERS ENGRAILS decorates (e.g. the side of a coin) with… Read More

Using the letter G

The G is generally best got rid of as soon as possible (you will notice ‘guest’ begins with G – is this just coincidence?). Less experienced players often get very excited when they get -ING on their rack, thinking they will make a seven-letter word with it. It’s not as… Read More

Words with American spellings

Scrabble has always allowed American spellings – more than ever since the North American word list was incorporated into the one used by the rest of the world. So have no fear about playing COLOR or TRAVELED (as against the British… Read More

Using Q without a U

For most casual players, the letter that fills them with more dread than any other is the Q. Needing a U to be able to use it with any ‘normal’ word, it can leave you effectively playing with six tiles (removing any chance of a bonus, of course) or force… Read More

Seven-letter stems

Just as you can use six-letter stems to help you remember lots of useful seven-letter words, you can take seven-letter stems and use them to find eight- letter words. About half of all bonus words played are eight-letter words – you can’t afford to neglect them. Let’s take a rack… Read More

Using the letter F

Not a favourite tile for most players, the best use of the F is often just to hunt for a handy vowel or Y which has a premium square beside it, and use that to play a two-letter word, preferably going both ways to double the value. So if, say,… Read More

Six-letter stems

The secret to playing the big bonus-scoring words is … you’ve got to know them! Obvious really, but you won’t always get a nice simple word like RETAINS or ENTAILS popping onto your rack. You might end up with a rack like… Read More