Goal: score the most points by making words on the board, crossword style.
Your turn
- Drag tiles from your rack onto the board, or tap a tile and then a square. You can also click a square and type.
- All the tiles you place go in one row or one column, and together with tiles already there they make one unbroken word.
- After the first word, every play must touch tiles already on the board. The first word covers the centre star.
- Every word you make, across and down, must be in the word list. The Play button shows what your word will score before you commit.
Instead of playing, you can Swap some tiles for new ones (while 7 or more are left in the bag) or Pass. Either way, your turn is over.
Scoring
3WTriple word: the whole word scores ×3.
2WDouble word: the whole word scores ×2.
3LTriple letter: the tile on it scores ×3.
2LDouble letter: the tile on it scores ×2.
- Each tile shows its points. Common letters like E are worth 1, rare ones like Q and Z are worth 10.
- Bonus squares count only on the turn a tile is placed on them. The centre star has no bonus; it just marks where the first word goes.
- A word that covers two bonus-word squares gets both: two double words make ×4, two triple words ×9.
- Every word your tiles make scores, so a play that also makes short words across or down can score big.
- Bingo: use all seven tiles in one turn for 40 extra points.
- Blank tiles can be any letter you choose, but score 0.
The end
The game ends when someone uses their last tile and the bag is empty. They gain the points left on everyone else's racks, and the others lose them. It also ends if every player scores nothing three turns in a row.
Ways to play
- Daily Ten: ten turns on your own with the same tiles as everyone else today. Score at least half of the Hard computer's total for bronze, three quarters for silver, and all of it for gold.
- The computer: Easy plays short everyday words, Medium plays a solid game, Skilled usually finds a strong play with words most people know, Hard always takes the top score, and Expert also plans ahead by keeping good tiles.
- Pass and play: up to four players on one screen, people or computers.
Getting better
- Turn on Show the best play in Settings to see, after each turn, the highest-scoring play you could have made.
- Hint places a strong play on the board for you; press again for another. Games where you used a hint are marked in the moves list.
- Two-letter words such as QI, ZA, XI, JO and OX help you squeeze in high-value tiles.
- Tiles left (next to Moves) shows which letters haven't been played yet.
Keys
| A–Z | Type at the square you clicked | Enter | Play |
| ← → ↑ ↓ | Move the typing cursor | Backspace | Take back the last tile |
| Click again | Switch between across and down | Esc | Bring all tiles back |
| Space | Shuffle your tiles | H | Hint (when not typing) |
Words come from the public-domain ENABLE list (about 173,000 words) plus newer words such as QI, ZA and EMOJI. Your game is saved in this browser, so you can close the tab and carry on later.