Tips to unscramble faster
The habits that separate people who stare at their rack from people who actually score.
- 1Split vowels and consonants
Rewrite your letters as two piles. It makes patterns easier to see and stops you missing vowel-heavy words like ouija or aisle.
- 2Look for common prefixes
Scan for RE-, UN-, PRE-, DIS-, OUT-, MIS-, OVER-. If you have the right letters, entire families of words open up.
- 3Look for common suffixes
-ING, -ED, -ER, -EST, -TION, -NESS, -MENT, -ABLE, -IEST. Endings are how you go from a 4-letter root to a 7-letter monster.
- 4Start small, then extend
Find a solid 3- or 4-letter word, then try to add a letter to the front or back. STONE → STONES, STONED, ATONES.
- 5Know your -S plurals
In Scrabble and Words With Friends, plurals are usually the easiest way to squeeze one more point out of a rack.
- 6Use wildcards on purpose
If you're stuck, replace a low-value letter with ? and see what appears. Sometimes the answer is a word you never considered.
- 7Learn the 2-letter words
AA, AB, AD, AE, AG, AH, AI, AL, AM, AN, AR, AS, AT, AW, AX, AY. Two-letter words are the glue of every high-scoring board.
- 8Watch for hooks
A hook is a single letter that turns one word into another. Adding S, E, D, or Y to the end is the classic move.