Are you a new Scrabbler looking for a way to improve your skills? Welcome to our blog, where you can find all the tips and tricks you need! Tips like: what the best Scrabble words are to study as you learn. One of the best ways to get better at Scrabble is simple: build your vocabulary. But the dictionary’s a pretty big book and you can’t exactly go memorizing the thing overnight. What to do? This list will give you a starting point in terms of what the most important words to know are to have a good game.
- Haze
Once you get used to Scrabble, you’ll start to notice that the best winning words have a few things in common. Case in point: haze. Not only does it have a high-point-value letter — the Z — it also has a few commonly-occurring vowels, like A and E. That makes it more likely you’ll be able to put together this word from your hand. Overall, this short word is worth a hefty 16 points.
This short word doesn’t have the classically rare letters, but it does have a J — a letter any Scrabble aficionado knows its worth a surprisingly high 8 points. That means ‘jam’ is 12 points and can be a good option if you’re pinched for tiles.
A lot of the words on this list will be short. Why? Well, first of all, they’re more realistic for beginners to play. And while it might seem like the only way to be successful is to play a bunch of 8-letter words, shorter terms can actually build up a lot of points. Yo, for example, can get rid of a couple of vowels while earning you 5 points when you’ve got a tough board.
- Ajar
Here’s that sneaky J coming back into play! This again follows the pattern of realistic, high-value words, with a high-point letter and a bunch of more common tiles, meaning ‘ajar’ is worth 11 points. And, as a bonus, if you’ve got a bunch of random A’s in your hand, this gets rid of some of them.
This is a full 7 letters, so it’s definitely a bit of a challenge for beginners to play, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. With a high-value Q, this word is worth a full 25 points in Scrabble — and if you use up all your tiles, you get a bonus of 50 points.
- Queenly
This word offers another great option if you’ve got a Q in your hand, while also not containing any other strange letters that might be hard to obtain.
You want to a slice of ‘za’? In Scrabble, you might. While this isn’t exactly a commonly used word, it’s one of the most often-played terms in Scrabble, since it’s a great way to get rid of a Z, and is worth 11 points for only two letters.
- Phony
This word may read ‘phony’ but we’re not joking about how valuable it is. It can help you get rid of a bunch of letters if you’re short on vowels — just find an O on the board you can build off of. And, as a bonus, it’s worth a full 13 points, making it a solid play.
- Gyoza
There are a lot of disagreements the world over on how to properly spell gyoza, a type of Asian dumpling. Wherever you fall on the scale, gyoza is a valid Scrabble word, and is worth a full 18 points.
If you only learn one word from this list, it should be ‘qi.’ This short word is a fantastic way to use up a stubborn Q if you don’t have a U on your hand or the board. All you need is an i on the board to build off of, and you’ll get 11 points for almost no effort.
