Scrabble Rules

Scrabble remains one of the most popular mind games played around the world. The game really tests your intellect and memorizing skills as you have to compete against the best when playing professionally and are given the chance to play unique words from a whole range of legal words found in the scrabble dictionary. However, there are quite a few scrabble rules and you really need to play by the book if you want to win the game. You can’t just play it haphazardly without any knowledge of the rulebook.

Scrabble Rules

Whether you play with scrabble word finder cheat words friends or you want to be fair and only go by the book, the knowledge of scrabble rules is always going to help you out. So, if you have always been interested in playing the game and wanted to test your mind skills, let’s get you started by introducing you to different terminology used in the game and find out what objects are there that you have to deal with.

First of all, when you are playing scrabble, 2-4 players can participate in the game at a time. Your objective, as you play the game, is scoring as many points as you can and beat other players in the number of points scored. The points are scored by forming different words on the scrabble board and these words are formed with the help of a range of letter tiles that have to be placed on the board. As you continue placing the tiles on the scrabble board and new words are formed, you collect a certain number of points for each word that you form according to the given face value associated with each tile used in the word formation. Obviously, your key strategy would be to play various words that carry highest score possible so that you can beat the opponent easily by playing fewer words.

Scrabble Board

The official scrabble board consists of different cells located in the big square grid. A standard board comes with fifteen cells high while it is fifteen cells wide as well. Tiles that are used in the game are appropriately sized to fit the cells on the scrabble board.

Scrabble Tiles

Scrabble game is played with 100 letter tiles that are distributed among players to form letters according to the scrabble rules. A total of 98 tiles among these will have point values and letters printed on them. Remaining two tiles are referred to as the blank tiles. These are used as the wild tiles and can take place of almost any letter on the board. When these blank tiles are played, they’ll be used as that same letter which they substituted for.

All the letter tiles have certain point value linked to them and it normally depends on the rarity of these letters or the difficulty level of playing these tiles in different words in the scrabble dictionary. There is no point value linked to the blank tiles.

Tile Values

As mentioned earlier, each letter tile has a certain value linked to it and here we have outlined these values for you.

  • Blank Tile: 0 Points
  • A, E, I, L, N, O, R, S, T, U: 1 Point
  • D, G: 2 Points
  • B, C, M, P: 3 Points
  • F, H, V, W, Y: 4 Points
  • K: 5 Points
  • J, X: 8 Points
  • Q, Z: 10 Points

Extra Point Values

A simple look at the scrabble board will reveal that there are a few squares that are offering multipliers. Whenever some tile is placed on such squares, the tile’s value is multiplied with the multiplier mentioned on the board. It is usually a 2x multiplier or a 3x multiplier. There are some squares which also multiply word’s total value rather than the point value associated with the tile. Here we have the detail for each of these multiplying squares.

  • Double Letter Scores: These cells are highlighted on any standard scrabble board in light blue color and they are isolated. Whenever these cells are used, they’ll double the point value any tile that is placed on them.
  • Triple Letter Scores: These cells are highlighted on any standard board in dark blue color and they are worth thrice the value of tile that is placed on them. So, whichever tile you place on these squares, apply a 3x multiplier to it.
  • Double Word Scores: These cells are highlighted on the board in light red color and they run in a diagonal pattern on the scrabble board moving towards four corners. Whenever you play a word on these double word squares, the value of the entire word gets doubled.
  • Triple Word Scores: These cells are highlighted on the board in dark red color. Whenever you play a word on these squares, the value of the entire word is multiplied with 3. These squares are present on all the sides of the scrabble board and they are placed at equal distance from the board’s corners.
  • One Single Use: Whenever you use extra point squares on scrabble board, they can’t be used again. Whenever a word is placed here, you can’t use the square again for multiplying the result.

Starting Scrabble Game

All the scrabble tiles are put in a bag before the game starts and the players take a tile at random without having a look into the bag. Any player who gets the letter tile closest to the letter “A” gets the privilege to start the game. However, if someone gets the blank tile, they automatically get the chance to play the first word and mark the start of the game. Once the game opener is decided, all tiles are put into the bag again before all the players can draw their tiles to start the play.

To start off, all the players get 7 tiles from the bag and that’s all they have to play the first words and get things started. In each turn, every player gets three options to make use of it. They can either play a word, exchange their tiles to get some new tiles from the bag or simply pass on. Most of the times, players try to play a word because both the other options will not earn them any points and won’t do any good to their cause.

In case, if the player wants to exchange their tiles, it is possible for them to change either one of the tiles they have or all of them. Once they have exchanged the desired tiles, their turn is over which means they do not get the chance to play a word in this turn. They’ll then need to wait for the next turn in order to play any word on the scrabble board.

If the players do not want to use any of the above two options on their turn, they can simply decide to pass. The current turn will be forfeited and they can only hope that they’d be able to play some word and earn a few points in the next turn. However, players can’t pass two of their consecutive turns because it will mark the end of game for them and the player who has highest number of points at that time will be declared as the winner.

First Word Score

As a scrabble game starts, the player who won the first turn gets the chance to play their word on the board starting with that star spin that resides right in the middle of game board. It’s a double square that gives them the chance to get double word score in their very first turn. This word will be used by all the following players to make their own words and start scoring and the game will then be extended to various other squares everywhere else on the board.

This marks the start of the play and it continues in clockwise direction moving around the board. Every player has to wait for their turn before they could play their first word.

Replacing The Scrabble Tiles

According to the scrabble rules, when you have played the tiles on scrabble board, you will have to draw new ones for replacing them and keeping up with the total count. At any point while playing the game, you need to have a total of 7 tiles with you. Remember, however, that whenever you have to draw the tiles, you cannot look into the scrabble bag as this will ensure you pick up the tiles at random and do not pick up the letters that you need the most for your next plays. So, go by the rules and pick the tiles randomly.

Fifty Point Bonus

Players can expect some really exciting rewards whenever they play all the seven tiles they have for creating the desired words and can make it count. When a word is created with all the seven tiles, the player gets the chance to receive 50 bonus points besides the points scored by playing the word in the first place. However, if the game is just about to end and players don’t have seven tiles in possession, they won’t be entitled to the 50 point bonus even if they play all the tiles they have at hand. The only scenario for collecting this bonus is to play seven tiles together and make a 7-lettered word on the board.

Ending The Game

As soon as all the tiles from the bag are used and one of the players has played all their tiles, it ends the game. The scores are calculated for all the players at this point and the one who scores the highest ends up on the winning side.

Tallying Your Scrabble Scores

At the end of the game, all the players count the points they had scored while playing the game and also the numbers on their remaining tiles which haven’t been played. The total count of the remaining tiles is then deducted from their final score to get the total they have scored.

Besides that, an additional bonus is give to the player who ended their game with no tiles remaining. This bonus is actually calculated by adding the total points of the remaining tiles that all other players have. This will leave all the players with their final score at the end of the game.

Eventually, the player scoring the highest number of points gets to win it.

Accepted And Legal Scrabble Words

Any and all the words that are present in the standard English Dictionary are also present in the scrabble dictionary and they are considered legal when played in the scrabble game. You can also get a variety of official scrabble dictionaries which you can buy to get even better word options.

Remember, however, that there are certain words that aren’t allowed in the game as they are not the part of official scrabble dictionary. These include prefixes, suffixes and the abbreviations. Furthermore, any and all the words which need apostrophe or a hyphen may not be played in the game of scrabble because they are not legal according to the scrabble rules. Furthermore, all the words which need you to use capital letters are not allowed either.

When you are playing game’s English version, you can’t play any foreign words as they are not allowed on your scrabble board. But, in case, if foreign words do appear in the typical English dictionaries, they are allowed and are considered legal. One simple reason for this is that these words are spoken quite a lot and are considered to be the part of English Language.

Some Other Scrabble Rules

Before you start off the game, it is necessary that you have a scrabble game board, hundred letter tiles, one letter bag or pouch, and 4 racks.

Scrabble Rules2

Prior to starting the game, all the players must agree on a particular dictionary which they will be using if there is a challenge. Challenges can be made and entertained in the game if some player thinks the words played by the opponent are not legal according to their chosen scrabble dictionary. Any and all the words that are labeled part of speech are allowed and considered legal in the game of scrabble. There is, however, an exception for the words that are always capitalized, standalone suffixes and prefixes, abbreviations, and words that need an apostrophe or a hyphen in them.

Once you have agreed on the dictionary that would be used for any challenges, you have to put all the letter tiles in the bag, or put them facedown right beside your board, and mix it all up thoroughly. Draw for the first play and the next procedure is exactly as given above.

When the first player takes their turn, they use at least two letters to form the words they have to play and place them on that center square. Remember, you are not allowed to play words diagonally.

Your turn doesn’t get complete after simply playing and counting the scores. Rather, you also have to announce the scores for every turn before it gets complete. Your rack must have seven letters after every turn unless there are not enough tiles in the scrabble bag to draw further.

As the play moves towards the left side, every turn adds at least 1 letter to the words already been played and as a result new words are formed. Every letter that is played in a single turn should be placed in a single row moving down or across the board. The letters you play should form one new word at least. In case, if they touch different other letters from adjacent rows, complete words should also be formed there as well. It should be in crosswords fashion with all the letters of this type. All the credit goes to the player for forming all the words or changing them in any way during the turn.

You can form new words by:

  • Adding one letter or more to an existing word present on the scrabble board
  • Placing new words at 90degrees angles to already existing words on the board. New words that you form now should have at least one letter in them from the words that already exist on the board or they must add one letter to them.
  • Placing an entire word parallel to the word that is already played to ensure that complete words can be formed by adjacent letters as well.

You can’t replace or shift any tiles once you have played them and their scores have been added up.

You can use the blank tiles as almost any letters you like. However, when you are going to play these blank tiles, it is necessary that you specify which letters they represent. Once specified and played, the blank tile will represent the same letter until the game continues.

One of your turns can be used for exchanging some or all of your letters. For this, you have to place the discarded letters facedown. Draw exact same number from the available pool of letters and then mix the discarded letters into that pool. Here your current turn will end and you will be able to play new words in the next turn.

Any words played can be challenged only before the player next on the line starts their turn. In case, if the challenged play is unacceptable, the player being challenged has to take their tiles back and they lose that particular turn. However, if the challenged play is legal and acceptable, the player who challenged it will lose their next turn. The challenges can only be checked through the scrabble dictionary all players agreed to use when the game started. Each and every word that is made in a single play can be challenged at once. Even if a single word in the play is unacceptable, the entire turn will be rendered unacceptable. Any challenges may cause either of the two players just one of their turns.

The game will end when all the letters from the bag have been used and one of the players uses their last letter. Or, it will end when all the possible words have been played and no more letter combinations could be tried to form new words.

Scrabble Word Finder Cheat Words Friends

Now that you know all the scrabble rules and understand how you should be playing the game, why don’t you try to expand your knowledge of the English dictionary and give yourself the chance to play unique words that your opponents may not even know about. Want to figure out a perfect way to do that? Try scrabble word finder cheat words friends! These online word finder tools have their own algorithm that they use to give you all the possible words that could be formed by using your specified letters. You just need to enter a few letters in any order whatsoever and the best word finder tool that you have chosen would give you all 2-lettered, 3-letered, 4-lettered words using the provided letters. Give as many letters as you like and the list will go on.

It is not just a wonderful way of enhancing your knowledge of the language and all the legal words that are allowed in the game but it also is a fun activity that you can try with your friends. Yes, just practice playing the game of scrabble with your friends and you’ll really find it fun to surprise them with the new words that you could find with the help of scrabble word finder cheat words friends. Even though it has nothing to do with the scrabble rules and, in fact, it is against the rules of the game to take any outside help, but as you’ll be just practicing the game and having fun you can definitely do that. There is nothing wrong in doing so both legally and morally because you are just doing it as a fun way of learning the game and increasing your understanding of more legal words according to the scrabble dictionary that you may have chosen.

So, what are you waiting for then. You have everything you need to start playing scrabble and enjoying the game like never before. You know almost all the scrabble rules and you know how you can sharpen your word skills and get to learn all the new words that you can try playing both professionally and also with your friends. Give it a try now and you will definitely have a perfect experience as you get along.

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