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Starting Play | Forming Words | Playing Blanks | Challenges | Scoring Words

Scrabble© tile values, blanks have no score value.

All players are randomly allocated 7 tiles each at the start of all new games.

All words labelled as a part of speech (including those listed of foreign origin, and as archaic, obsolete, colloquial, slang, etc.) are permitted with the exception of the following: words always capitalized, (proper nouns), abbreviations, prefixes and suffixes standing alone, words requiring a hyphen or an apostrophe.

The first player combines two or more of his or her letters to form a word and places it on the board to read either across or down with at least one letter on the CENTRE SQUARE. Diagonal words are not allowed.

Complete your turn by counting and announcing your score for that turn. Then draw as many new letters as you played; always keeping seven letters on your rack, as long as there are enough tiles left in the letter bag. (The game does all of the above paragraph for you automatically).

Play passes to the "left". The second player, and then each in turn, adds one or more letters to those already played to form new words. All letters played on a turn must be placed in one row across or down the board, to form at least one complete word. If, at the same time, they touch others letters in adjacent rows, those must also form complete words, crossword fashion, with all such letters. The player gets full credit for all words formed or modified on his or her turn.

New words may be formed by:

  • There are five different ways that new words can be formed:

    1. Adding one or more tiles to the beginning or end of a word already on the board, or to both the beginning and end of that word.
    i.e. Trainer can become Strainers if you have two tiles with the letter S.

    2. Placing a word at right angles to a word already on the board. The new word must use one of the letters of the word already on the board. Note, a right angle can be
    └  or  ┘

    3. Placing a complete word parallel to a word already played so that adjoining tiles also form complete words.

    4. A new word added at right angles can also add a letter to an existing word.

    5. The last variation is to bridge two or more letters. (This can only be done after the fourth move or later in the game).

No tile may be shifted or replaced after it has been played and scored. You can only play onto, across or adjacent to existing words on the game board. See example below. You cannot play a word in one direction, then play another word off that same word, save for 4 above. Where only one tile is added, either at the front, or at the end of an existing word. There is no rule to suggest, the same word may not be played, more than once on the board.

This play is perfectly valid, since the word GERM already exists on the game board.

This play is invalid, since DRYER does not yet exist on the game board.

You can only play onto, across, or adjacent to existing words on the board.

Words cannot be spelt nor read backwards, like GRAY as YARG, unless they are palindromic of course!

Blanks: The two blank tiles, four in the Super Scrabble game, may be used as any letters. They look like this in your letter tray on the game page. To play a blank, you just type in the required field, the letter you want your blank to represent. Its score value is zero. Say you played PLAYS onto HOUR, and used your blank as an S, it will now appear like this on your game board.

The official rules of SCRABBLE do not allow a player, later in the game, to change the letter that the blank represents. Likewise, a player may not replace the blank with the letter it represents and use the blank in another word. At the National Scrabble Association's clubs and tournaments, this rule is strictly enforced.

Advanced Tip: If you are playing a blank that coincides with a letter you already have (you have one S, one blank but need to spell a word with two S's), then it might be best to use "-", the minus sign, to play the blank explicitly so the program knows WHERE the blank should go. For more details please click here.

You may use a turn to exchange all, some, or none of your letters. To do this, click on Swap Tiles or Skip Turn, and follow the instructions on that page. 

There is no restriction on the number of times a player may exchange tiles during a game. However, there must be at least seven tiles remaining in the bag, regardless of the number of tiles being exchanged.

Any play may be challenged before the next player starts a turn. If the play challenged is unacceptable, the challenged player takes back his or her tiles and loses that turn. If the play challenged is acceptable, the challenger loses their turn, and points scored. Abbreviations and Proper Nouns are not allowed. Please consult the Official Scrabble Dictionaries if you are in doubt. 

A player can only challenge the previous players play.  If a word is challenged, and with the consent of the player who played the "invalid" word, then that word can be removed, and its points deducted. This effectively makes the player who played the "invalid" word lose their turn.

It is important to realise, that if a play is not challenged, i.e. gone unnoticed, yet seen later, it cannot be challenged two or more moves after the foul. So the player whose turn it is next, must make sure that the previous players word is either "valid" or "invalid". A challenge can be performed at any stage of the game, so long as it fits the criteria above, and must only be done once. Performing a challenge twice, i.e. straight after the first challenge, effectively puts that play and its  points scored back. 

The game ends when all letters have been drawn and one player uses his or her last letter; or when all possible plays have been made. Passing, or Skip Turn, is permitted at any time during the game. If each player passes thrice in succession however, the game is deemed as ended.

Scoring

1) All scoring is automatic, the game does this for you, and shows your score(s) after playing your turn. Your opponent(s) receive an update e-mail with current score and total scores. The score value of each letter is indicated by a number at the bottom of the tile. The score value of a blank is zero.

2) The score for each turn is the sum of the letter values in each word(s) formed or modified on that turn, plus the additional points obtained from placing letters on Premium Squares.

3) Premium Letter Squares:
A light blue square doubles the score of a letter placed on it; a dark blue square triples the letter score.

          

4) Premium Word Squares:
The score for an entire word is doubled when one of its letters is placed on a pink square: it is tripled when one of its letters is placed on a red square. Include premiums for double or triple letter values, if any, before doubling or tripling the word score.

5) If a word is formed that covers two double word premium squares, the score is doubled and then re-doubled (4 times the letter count), or tripled and then re-tripled (9 times the letter count), if a word covers two triple word premium squares. In the Super Scrabble© game, if a word covers a double and triple premium word squares, the score is doubled, and then tripled, (6 times the letter count). Or if a word covers a triple, and quadruple premium word squares, the score is tripled, and then quadrupled (12 times the letter count). NOTE: the centre square is a pink square, which doubles the score for the first word. If player 1 passes on their opening play, the double word premium centre square score value, passes to player 2.

6) Letter and word premiums count only on the turn in which they are played. On later turns, letters already played on premium squares count at face value.

7) When a blank tile is played on a pink or red square, the value of the word is doubled or tripled, even though the blank itself has no score value.

8) When two or more words are formed in the same play, each is scored. The common letter is counted (with full premium value, if any) for each word.

9) BINGO! (50 extra points). If you play all seven tiles in a single play it's called a Bingo. Bingos score you a premium of 50 points on top of your score for the turn.

10) Remaining Letters: When the game ends, each players' score is reduced by the sum of their remaining letters. In addition, if a player has used all of their letters, the sum of the other players' remaining letters is added to that players' score.

11) The player with the highest final score wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with the highest score before adding or deducting remaining letters wins.

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