Word tile board games

Scrabble logo, used by Hasbro since 2014
A game of English-language Scrabble in progress
Manufacturers	Hasbro (within U.S. and Canada) Mattel (outside U.S. and Canada)
Designers	Alfred Mosher Butts
Publishers	James Brunot
Publication	1938; 85 years ago
Genres	Word game Board game
Players	2–4
Setup time	2–4 minutes
Playing time	NASPA tournament game: ~50 minutes
Chance	Medium (letters drawn)
Skills	Vocabulary, spelling, anagramming, strategy, counting, bluffing, probability
Website	Official website at Hasbro.com

Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left to right in rows or downward in columns and are included in a standard dictionary or lexicon.

The game was invented in 1938 by American architect Alfred Mosher Butts. Scrabble is produced in the United States and Canada by Hasbro, under the brands of both of its subsidiaries, Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers. Mattel owns the rights to manufacture Scrabble outside the U.S. and Canada. The game is sold in 121 countries and is available in more than 30 languages; approximately 150 million sets have been sold worldwide, and roughly one-third of American and half of British homes have a Scrabble set.^[1][2][3][4] There are approximately 4,000 Scrabble clubs around the world.^[4]

Game details[edit]

The game is played by two to four players on a square game board imprinted with a 15×15 grid of cells (individually known as «squares»), each of which accommodates a single letter tile. In official club and tournament games, play is between two players or, occasionally, between two teams, each of which collaborates on a single rack.^[5]

The board is marked with «premium» squares, which multiply the number of points awarded: eight dark red «triple-word» squares, 17 pale red «double-word» squares, of which one, the center square (H8), is marked with a star or other symbol, 12 dark blue «triple-letter» squares, and 24 pale blue «double-letter» squares. In 2008, Hasbro changed the colors of the premium squares to orange for TW, red for DW, blue for DL, and green for TL, but the original premium square color scheme is still preferred for Scrabble boards used in tournaments.^[6]

In an English-language set, the game contains 100 tiles, 98 of which are marked with a letter and a point value ranging from 1 to 10. The number of points for each lettered tile is based on the letter’s frequency in standard English. Commonly used letters such as vowels are worth one point, while less common letters score higher, with Q and Z each worth 10 points. The game also has two blank tiles that are unmarked and carry no point value. The blank tiles can be used as substitutes for any letter; once laid on the board, however, the choice is fixed. Other language sets use different letter set distributions with different point values.

Tiles are usually made of wood or plastic and are 19 by 19 millimetres (0.75 in × 0.75 in) square and 4 mm (0.16 in) thick, making them slightly smaller than the squares on the board. Only the rosewood tiles of the deluxe edition vary in width up to 2 mm (0.08 in) for different letters. Travelling versions of the game often have smaller tiles (e.g. 13 mm × 13 mm (0.51 in × 0.51 in)); sometimes they are magnetic to keep them in place. The capital letter is printed in black at the centre of the tile face and the letter’s point value is printed in a smaller font at the bottom right corner. Most modern replacement tile sets come at 18 mm × 20 mm (0.7 in × 0.8 in).

S is one of the most versatile tiles in English-language Scrabble because it can be appended to many words to pluralize them (or in the case of most verbs, convert them to the third person singular present tense, as in the word PLUMMETS); Alfred Butts included only four S tiles to avoid making the game «too easy». Q is considered the most troublesome letter, as almost all words with it also contain U; a similar problem occurs in other languages like French, Dutch, Italian, and German. J is also difficult to play due to its low frequency and a scarcity of words having it at the end.^[7] C and V may be troublesome in the endgame, since no two-letter words with them exist, except for CH in the Collins Scrabble Words lexicon.

History[edit]

In 1938, the American architect Alfred Mosher Butts created the game as a variation on an earlier word game he invented, called Lexiko. The two games had the same set of letter tiles, whose distributions and point values Butts worked out by performing a frequency analysis of letters from various sources, including The New York Times. The new game, which he called Criss-Crosswords, added the 15×15 gameboard and the crossword-style gameplay. He manufactured a few sets himself but was not successful in selling the game to any major game manufacturers of the day.^[9]: 98

In 1948, James Brunot,^[10] a resident of Newtown, Connecticut, and one of the few owners of the original Criss-Crosswords game, bought the rights to manufacture the game in exchange for granting Butts a royalty on every unit sold. Although he left most of the game (including the distribution of letters) unchanged, Brunot slightly rearranged the «premium» squares of the board and simplified the rules; he also renamed the game Scrabble, a real word which means «to scratch frantically».^[9]: 100 In 1949, Brunot and his family made sets in a converted former schoolhouse in Dodgingtown, Connecticut, a section of Newtown. They made 2,400 sets that year but lost money.^[11] According to legend, Scrabble‘s big break came in 1952 when Jack Straus, president of Macy’s, played the game on vacation. Upon returning from vacation, he was surprised to find that his store did not carry the game. He placed a large order, and within a year, «everyone had to have one».^[9]: 101

In 1952, unable to meet demand himself, Brunot licensed the manufacturing rights to Long Island-based Selchow and Righter, one of the manufacturers who, like Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley Company, had previously rejected the game. «It’s a nice little game. It will sell well in bookstores,» Selchow and Righter president Harriet T. Righter remembered saying about Scrabble when she first saw it.^[12] In its second year as a Selchow and Righter product, 1954, nearly four million sets were sold.^{[13][9]: 104} Selchow and Righter then bought the trademark to the game in 1972.^[14]

Meanwhile, JW Spear acquired the rights to sell the game in Australia and the UK on January 19, 1955.^[9] In 1986, Selchow and Righter was sold to Coleco, which soon afterward went bankrupt. Hasbro then purchased Coleco’s assets in 1989, including Scrabble and Parcheesi.^[14] Mattel then acquired JW Spear in 1994.^[9] Since then, Hasbro has owned the rights to manufacture Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada, and Mattel has held the rights to manufacture the game in other parts of the world.^[14]

In 1984, Scrabble was turned into a daytime game show on NBC. The Scrabble game show ran from July 1984 to March 1990,^[15] with a second run from January to June 1993. The show was hosted by Chuck Woolery. Its tagline in promotional broadcasts was, «Every man dies; not every man truly Scrabbles.»^[16] In 2011, a new TV variation of Scrabble, called Scrabble Showdown, aired on The Hub cable channel, which is a joint venture of Discovery Communications, Inc. and Hasbro.

Scrabble was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2004.^[17]

Evolution of the rules[edit]

The «box rules» included in each copy of the North American edition have been edited four times: in 1953, 1976, 1989, and 1999.^[18]

The major changes in 1953 were as follows.

• It was made clear that:
  • words could be played through single letters already on the board,
  • a player could play a word parallel and immediately adjacent to an existing word provided all crossing words formed were valid,
  • the effect of two premium squares was to be compounded multiplicatively.
• The previously unspecified penalty for having one’s play successfully challenged was stated: withdrawal of tiles and loss of turn.

The major changes in 1976 were as follows.

• It was made clear that the blank tile beats an A when drawing to see who goes first.
• A player could pass their turn, doing nothing.
• A loss-of-turn penalty was added for challenging an acceptable play.
• If final scores are tied, the player whose score was highest before adjusting for unplayed tiles is the winner;^[19] in tournament play, a tie is counted as half a win for both players.^[6]

The editorial changes made in 1989 did not affect gameplay.^[18]

The major changes in 1999 were as follows.

• It was made clear that:
  • a tile can be shifted or replaced until the play has been scored,
  • a challenge applies to all the words made in the given play.
• Playing all seven tiles is officially called a «bingo» in North America and a «bonus» elsewhere.
• A change in the wording of the rules could have been interpreted as meaning that a player may form more than one word on one row on a single turn.

Rules[edit]

Notation system[edit]

In the notation system common in tournament play, columns are labeled with the letters «A–O» and rows with the numbers «1–15». (On Scrabble boards manufactured by Mattel as well as on the Internet Scrabble Club, rows are lettered while columns are numbered instead.) A play is usually identified in the format xy WORD score or WORD xy score, where x denotes the column or row on which the play’s main word extends, y denotes the second coordinate of the main word’s first letter, and WORD is the main word. Although it is unnecessary, additional words formed by the play are sometimes listed after the main word and a slash. When the play of a single tile forms words in each direction, one of the words is arbitrarily chosen to serve as the main word for purposes of notation.

When a blank tile is employed in the main word, the letter it has been chosen to represent is indicated with a lower case letter, or, in handwritten notation, with a square around the letter. When annotating a play, previously existing letters on the board are usually enclosed in parentheses; alternatively, the number of tiles placed on the board can be noted.

Exchanges are often annotated by a minus sign followed by the tiles that were exchanged alphabetically; for example, if a player holds EIIISTU, exchanging two I’s and a U would be denoted as «−IIU».

The image at right gives examples of valid plays and how they would typically be annotated using the notation system.

Additionally, a number of symbols have been employed to indicate the validity of words in different lexica:

• An asterisk (*) means an illegal, or phony, word.
• A hash symbol (#) means a word valid in games using the British-originated word list (CSW) only.
• A dollar symbol ($) means a word valid in games using the American-originated word list (TWL) only.
• An exclamation mark (!) means a word judged to be offensive, and thus valid in tournament games only.

Sequence of play[edit]

Before the game, a resource, either a word list or a dictionary, is selected to adjudicate any challenges during the game. The tiles are either put in an opaque bag or placed face down on a flat surface. Opaque cloth bags and customized tiles are staples of clubs and tournaments, where games are rarely played without both.

Next, players decide the order in which they play. The normal approach is for players to each draw one tile. The player who picks the letter closest to the beginning of the alphabet goes first, with blank tiles taking precedence over the letter A. In most North American tournaments, the rules of the NASPA Games organization stipulate instead that players who have gone first in the fewest previous games in the tournament go first, and when that rule yields a tie, those who have gone second the most go first. If there is still a tie, tiles are drawn as in the standard rules.

At the beginning of the game, each player draws seven tiles from the bag and places them on their rack, concealed from the other player(s).

Making a play[edit]

The first played word must be at least two letters long, and cover H8 (the center square). Thereafter, any move is made by using one or more tiles to place a word on the board. This word may use one or more tiles already on the board and must join with the cluster of tiles already on the board.

On each turn, the player has three options:

• Pass, forfeiting the turn and scoring nothing.
• Exchange one or more tiles for an equal number from the bag, scoring nothing, an option available only if at least seven tiles remain in the bag.
• Play at least one tile on the board, adding the value of all words formed to the player’s cumulative score.

A proper play uses one or more of the player’s tiles to form a continuous string of letters that make a word (the play’s «main word») on the board, reading either left-to-right or top-to-bottom. The main word must either use the letters of one or more previously played words or else have at least one of its tiles horizontally or vertically adjacent to an already played word. If any words other than the main word are formed by the play, they are scored as well and are subject to the same criteria of acceptability. See Scoring for more details.

A blank tile may represent any letter and scores zero points, regardless of its placement or what letter it represents. Its placement on a double-word or triple-word square causes the corresponding premium to be applied to the word(s) in which it is used. Once a blank tile is placed, it remains that particular letter for the remainder of the game.

After making a play, the player announces the score for that play, and then, if the game is being played with a clock, starts the opponent’s clock. The player can change their play as long as the player’s clock is running, but commits to the play when they start the opponent’s clock. The player then draws tiles from the bag to replenish their rack to seven tiles. If there are not enough tiles in the bag to do so, the player takes all the remaining tiles.

If a player has made a play and has not yet drawn a tile, the opponent may choose to challenge any or all words formed by the play. The player challenged must then look up the words in question using a specified word source (such as the NASPA Word List, the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, or Collins Scrabble Words), and if one or more of them is found to be unacceptable, the play is removed from the board, the player returns the newly played tiles to their rack, and the turn is forfeited. In tournament play, a challenge may be to the entire play or any one or more words formed in the play, and judges (human or computer) are used, so players are not entitled to know which word(s) are invalid. Penalties for unsuccessfully challenging an acceptable play vary in club and tournament play and are described in greater detail below.

End of game[edit]

Under North American tournament rules, the game ends when either:

1. One player has played every tile on their rack, and no tiles remain in the bag (regardless of the tiles on the opponent’s rack).
2. At least six successive scoreless turns have occurred and either player decides to end the game.
3. Either player uses more than 10 minutes of overtime. (For several years, a game could not end with a cumulative score of 0–0, but that is no longer the case, and such games have since occurred a number of times in tournament play, the winner being the player with the lower total point value on their rack and thus a score less negative than the opponent’s.^[20])

When the game ends, each player’s score is reduced by the sum of their unused letters; in addition, if a player has used all of their letters (known as «going out» or «playing out»), the sum of all other players’ unused letters is added to that player’s score. In tournament play, a player who goes out adds twice that sum, and their opponent is not penalized.

Examples[edit]

Plays can be made in several ways (in what follows, it is assumed that the word JACK has been played on a previous turn; letters in parentheses represent tiles already on the board):

• Adding one or more letters to an existing word, e.g. (JACK)S, HI(JACK), HI(JACK)ING, (JACK)FRUIT.
• «Hooking» a word and playing perpendicular to that word, e.g. playing IONIZES with the S hooked on (JACK) to make (JACK)S.
• Playing perpendicular to a word, e.g. YEU(K)Y through the K in (JACK).
• Playing parallel to a word(s) forming several short words, e.g. CON played under (JACK) simultaneously forming (J)O and (A)N.

Any combination of these is allowed in a play, as long as all the letters placed on the board in one play lie in one row or column and are connected by a main word, and any run of tiles on two or more consecutive squares along a row or column constitutes a valid word.

Words must read either left-to-right or top-to-bottom. Diagonal plays are not allowed.

Scoring[edit]

The score for any play is determined this way:

• Each new word formed in a play is scored separately, and then those scores are added up. The value of each tile is indicated on the tile, and blank tiles are worth zero points.
• The main word (defined as the word containing every played letter) is scored. The letter values of the tiles are added up, and tiles placed on Double Letter Score (DLS) and Triple Letter Score (TLS) squares are doubled or tripled in value, respectively. Tiles placed on Double Word Score (DWS) or Triple Word Score (TWS) squares double or triple the value of the word(s) that include those tiles, respectively. In particular, the center square (H8) is considered a DWS, and the first play is doubled in value.
• If any «hook» words are played (e.g. playing ANEROID while «hooking» the A to BETTING to make ABETTING), the scores for each word are added separately. This is common for «parallel» plays that make up to eight words in one turn.
• Premium squares apply only when newly placed tiles cover them. Any subsequent plays do not count those premium squares.
• If a player covers both letter and word premium squares with a single word, the letter premium(s) is/are calculated first, followed by the word premium(s).
• If a player makes a play where the main word covers two DWS squares, the value of that word is doubled, then redoubled (i.e. 4× the word value). Similarly, if the main word covers two TWS squares, the value of that word is tripled, then re-tripled (9× the word value). Such plays are often referred to as «double-doubles» and «triple-triples» respectively. It is theoretically possible to achieve a play covering three TWS squares (a 27× word score), although this is extremely improbable without constructive setup and collaboration. Plays covering a DWS and a TWS simultaneously (6× the word value, or 18× if a DWS and two TWS squares are covered) are only possible if a player misses the center star on the first turn, and the play goes unchallenged (this is valid under North American tournament rules).
• Finally, if seven tiles have been laid on the board in one turn, known as a «bingo» in North America and as a «bonus» elsewhere, after all of the words formed have been scored, 50 bonus points are added.

When the letters to be drawn have run out, the final play can often determine the winner. This is particularly the case in close games with more than two players.

Scoreless turns can occur when a player passes, exchanges tiles, or loses a challenge. The latter rule varies slightly in international tournaments. A scoreless turn can also theoretically occur if a play consists of only blank tiles, but this is extremely unlikely in actual play.

Example[edit]

Suppose Player 1 plays QUANT 8D, with the Q on a DLS and T on the center star. The score for this play would be (2 × 10 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1) × 2 = 48 (following the order of operations).

Player 2 extends the play to ALI(QUANT) 8A with the A on the TWS at 8A. The score for this play would be (1 + 1 + 1 + 10 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1) × 3 = 51. Note that the Q is not doubled for this play.

Player 1 has DDIIIOO and plays OIDIOID 9G. The score for the word OIDIOID would be (2 × 1 + 1 + 2 × 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 × 2) = 14. Additionally, Player 1 formed NO and TI, which score 1 + 2 × 1 = 3 and 1 + 1 = 2 points respectively. Therefore, the sum of all the values of the words formed is 14+3+2 = 19. But since this is a seven-letter play, 50 points are added, resulting in a total score of 69. Player 1 now has a 117–51 lead.

The player with the highest final score wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with the highest score before adjusting for unplayed tiles wins the game. In tournament play, a tie counts as 1/2 a win for both players.

Acceptable words[edit]

Acceptable words are the primary entries in some agreed dictionary or lexicon, and all of their inflected forms. Words that are hyphenated, capitalized (such as proper nouns), or apostrophized are not allowed unless they also appear as acceptable entries; JACK is a proper noun, but the word JACK is acceptable because it has other usages as a common noun (automotive, vexillological, etc.) and verb that are acceptable. Acronyms or abbreviations, other than those that have acceptable entries (such as AWOL, RADAR, LASER, and SCUBA) are not allowed. Variant spellings, slang or offensive terms, archaic or obsolete terms, and specialized jargon words are allowed if they meet all other criteria for acceptability, but archaic spellings (e.g. NEEDE for NEED) are generally not allowed. Foreign words are not allowed in English-language Scrabble unless they have been incorporated into the English language, as with PATISSERIE, KILIM, and QI. Vulgar and offensive words are generally excluded from the OSPD but allowed in club and tournament play, but in 2020, the rise of anti-racism protests caused trademark owners and lexicon compilers to exclude words deemed to be personally applicable offensive slurs, resulting in their expurgation, while retaining other offensive words.

Proper nouns and other exceptions to the usual rules are allowed in some limited contexts in the spin-off game Scrabble Trickster. Names of recognized computer programs are permitted as an acceptable proper noun (for example, WinZip).

The memorization of two-letter words is considered an essential skill in this game.^[21]

There are two popular competition word lists for English-language Scrabble:

• NASPA Word List (NWL, also known as OTCWL, OWL, or TWL)
• Collins Scrabble Words (CSW, also called «Collins» or «SOWPODS»)

The first predominates in the U.S., Canada, Israel and Thailand, and the second in English Scrabble in the rest of the world. There is also a large community of competitive Collins players in North America, with its own NASPA rating system.

NWL and OSPD[edit]

Today’s NASPA Word List, published by NASPA Games, descends from the Official Tournament and Club Word List (a non-bowdlerized version of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary) and its companion Long Words List for longer words. The current version of NWL is NWL2020, effective January 2021, and the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, published by Merriam-Webster, is currently in its sixth edition of 2018. NWL includes all current OSPD words, plus several hundred offensive words and genericized trademarks such as KLEENEX; as of 2020, it no longer includes words judged to be personally applicable offensive slurs.

The NWL and OSPD are compiled using a number of major college-level dictionaries, principally those published by Merriam-Webster. If a word appears, at least historically, in any one of the dictionaries, it is included in the NWL and the OSPD. If the word has only an offensive meaning, it is included only in the NWL. The key difference between the OSPD and the NWL is that the OSPD is marketed for «home and school» use, without words which their source dictionaries judged offensive, rendering the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary less fit for official Scrabble play. The OSPD is available in bookstores, while the NWL is available only through NASPA.

Collins Scrabble Words[edit]

In all other English-speaking countries, the competition word list is Collins Scrabble Words 2019 edition, known as CSW19. (Versions of this lexicon before 2007 were known as SOWPODS.) The lexicon includes all allowed words 2 to 15 letters long. Historically, this list has contained all OTCWL words plus words sourced from Chambers and Collins English dictionaries, but recent editorial decisions have caused greater discrepancies between CSW and NWL. This book is used to adjudicate at the World Scrabble Championship and all other major international competitions outside North America.

Tournaments are also played using CSW in North America, particularly since Hasbro ceased to control tournament play in 2009. NASPA officially rates CSW tournaments alongside NWL tournaments, using a separate rating system.^[22]

Challenges[edit]

The penalty for a successfully challenged play is nearly universal: the offending player removes the tiles played and forfeits their turn. (In some online games, an option known as «void» may be used, wherein unacceptable words are automatically rejected by the program. The player is then required to make another play, with no penalty applied.)

The penalty for an unsuccessful challenge (where all words formed by the play are deemed valid) varies considerably, including:

• «Double Challenge», in which an unsuccessfully challenging player must forfeit the next turn. This penalty governs North American (NASPA-sanctioned) OWL tournament play,^[6] and is the standard for North American, Israeli, and Thai clubs. Because loss of a turn generally constitutes the greatest risk for an unsuccessful challenge, it provides the greatest incentive for a player to «bluff», or play a «phony» – a plausible word that they know or suspect to be unacceptable, hoping their opponent will not challenge it. Or a player can put down a legal word that appears to be a phony hoping the other player will incorrectly challenge it and lose their turn.
• «Single Challenge»/»Free Challenge», in which no penalty whatsoever is applied to a player who unsuccessfully challenges. This is the default rule in Ireland and the United Kingdom, as well as for many tournaments in Australia, although these countries do sanction occasional tournaments using other challenge rules.
• Modified «Single Challenge», in which an unsuccessful challenge does not result in the loss of the challenging player’s turn, but is penalized by the loss of a specified number of points. The most common penalty is five points. The rule has been adopted in Singapore (since 2000), Malaysia (since 2002), South Africa (since 2003), New Zealand (since 2004), and Kenya, as well as in contemporary World Scrabble Championships (since 2001) and North American (NASPA-sanctioned) Collins tournaments, and particularly prestigious Australian tournaments.^[23] Some countries and tournaments (including Sweden) use a 10-point penalty instead. In most game situations, this penalty is much lower than that of the «double challenge» rule. Consequently, such tournaments encourage greater willingness to challenge and discourage playing dubious words.

Under NASPA tournament rules, a player may request to «hold» the opponent’s play to consider whether to challenge it, provided that the opponent has not yet drawn replacement tiles. If player A holds, player A’s clock still runs, and player B may not draw provisional replacement tiles until 15 seconds after the hold was announced (which tiles must then be kept separate). There is no limit on how long player A may hold the play. If player A successfully challenges after player B drew provisional replacement tiles, player B must show the drawn tiles before returning them to the bag.

Competitive play[edit]

Club and tournament play[edit]

Tens of thousands play club and tournament Scrabble worldwide. All tournament (and most club) games are played with a game clock and a set time control. Although casual games are often played with unlimited time, this is problematic in competitive play among players for whom the number of evident legal plays is immense. Almost all tournament games involve only two players; typically, each has 25 minutes in which to make all of their plays. For each minute by which a player oversteps the time control, a penalty of 10 points is assessed. The number of minutes is rounded up, so, for example, if a player oversteps time control by two minutes and five seconds, the penalty is 30 points. Some games count the time by fractions of a minute.^[24][25] Also, most players use molded plastic tiles, not engraved like the original wooden tiles, eliminating the potential for a cheating player to «braille» (feel for particular tiles, especially blanks, in the bag).^[13]

Players are allowed «tracking sheets», pre-printed with the letters in the initial pool, from which tiles can be crossed off as they are played. Tracking tiles is an important aid to strategy, especially during the endgame, when no tiles remain to be drawn and each player can determine exactly what is on the opponent’s rack.

Notable and regularly held tournaments include:

1. The World Scrabble Championship: held in odd years up until 2013, when it was announced by Mattel that it would be called the Scrabble Champions Tournament and be held annually in subsequent years.^[26]
2. The Scrabble Players Championship (formerly North American Scrabble Championship): organized by NASPA Games, an open event attracting several hundred players, held around July–August every year in the United States.
3. The National Scrabble Championship: organized by the Association of British Scrabble Players (ABSP) and held every year in the United Kingdom.
4. The Brand’s Crossword Game King’s Cup: the largest tournament in the world. Held annually in Thailand around the end of June or the beginning of July.
5. The UK Open: the largest Scrabble tournament in Europe, held annually in Coventry in England, since 2008.

Other important tournaments include:

1. The World Youth Scrabble Championships: entry by country qualification, restricted to under 18 years old. Held annually since 2006.
2. The National School Scrabble Championship: entry open to North American school students. Held annually since 2003.
3. The Canadian Scrabble Championship: entry by invitation only to the top fifty Canadian players. Held every two to three years.
4. The Singapore Open Scrabble Championship: international Singapore championship held annually since 1997.

Clubs in North America typically meet one day a week for three or four hours and some charge a small admission fee to cover their expenses and prizes. Clubs also typically hold at least one open tournament per year. Tournaments are usually held on weekends, and between six and nine games are played each day.

There are also clubs in the UK and many other countries. There are a number of internationally rated SOWPODS tournaments.^[27]

During off-hours at tournaments, many players socialize by playing consultation (team) Scrabble, Clabbers, Anagrams, Boggle, Words with Friends, Scramble with Friends and other games.

Records[edit]

The following records were achieved during international competitive club or tournament play, according to authoritative sources, including the book Everything Scrabble by Joe Edley and John D. Williams Jr. (revised edition, Pocket Books, 2001) and the Scrabble FAQ.^[28] When available, separate records are listed based upon different official word lists:

1. OTCWL, the North American list, also used in Thailand and Israel, known today as the NASPA Word List (NWL);
2. OSW, formerly the official list in the UK;
3. SOWPODS, the combined OTCWL+OSW list now used in much of the world, known today as Collins Scrabble Words.

To date, new editions or revisions of these lists have not been considered substantial enough to warrant separate record-keeping.

• High game (OTCWL) – 830 by Michael Cresta (Mass.), at the Lexington (Mass.) club, October 12, 2006. Cresta defeated Wayne Yorra 830–490.^[29][30]
• High game (OTCWL) in a tournament game – 803 by Joel Sherman (N.Y.), at a tournament in Stamford, Conn., December 9, 2011. Sherman defeated Bradley Robbins 803–285, playing a record-tying seven bingos and sticking Robbins with the Q.^[31]
• High game (OSW) – 793 by Peter Preston (UK), 1999.^[32]
• High game (SOWPODS) – Toh Weibin set a record score of 850 at the Northern Ireland Championships on January 21, 2012. The winning margin of 591 points is also believed to be a record.^[33][34][35]
• High combined score (OTCWL) – 1320 (830–490) by Michael Cresta and Wayne Yorra, in a Lexington, Mass., club, 2006.^[29][30]
• High combined score (OTCWL) in a tournament game – 1134 (582–552) by Keith Smith (Tex.) and Stefan Rau (Conn.), Round 12 of the 2008 Dallas Open. (Rau’s losing score of 552 included three phony words that were not challenged.)^[36]
• High combined score (OTCWL) in a tournament game with no phony words played – 1127 (725–402) by Laurie Cohen (Ariz.) and Nigel Peltier (Wash.), in a tournament in Ahwatukee, Arizona, February 16, 2009.^[37]
• High combined score (SOWPODS) – 1210 (721–489) by Edward Okulicz (Australia and Michael McKenna (Australia), at the 2013 Janboree in NSW.^[38]
• Highest losing score (OTCWL) – 552 by Stefan Rau (Conn.) to Keith Smith’s (Tex.) 582, Round 12 of the 2008 Dallas Open.^[36]
• Highest tie game (OTCWL) – 502–502 by John Chew and Zev Kaufman, at a 1997 Toronto Club tournament.^[39]
• Highest tie game (SOWPODS) – 532–532 by Sinatarn Pattanasuwanna (Thailand) and Tawan Paepolsiri (Thailand) at the 2012 World Youth Scrabble Championship.^[40]
• Highest opening move score (OTCWL) – MuZJIKS (with a blank for the U) 126 by Jesse Inman (S.C.) at the National Scrabble Championship, 2008.^[41] The highest possible legal score on a first turn is MUZJIKS 128, using an actual U rather than a blank. (Note: The odds of drawing MUZJIKS without blanks is 9 in 432,325,411, or 1 in ^[42])
• Highest opening move score (SOWPODS) – BEZIQUE 124 by Sam Kantimathi (1993),^[43] Joan Rosenthal^[44] and Sally Martin.^[44]
• Highest single play (OTCWL) – QUIXOTRY 365 by Michael Cresta (Mass.), 2006.^[29][30]
• Highest single play (SOWPODS) – CAZIQUES 392 by Karl Khoshnaw.^[45]
• Highest average score, multi-day tournament (OSPD) – 503 by James Leong (Sask.) over 12 rounds at Brandon, Man., 2015.^[46] 484 by Doug Brockmeier (Calif.) over 12 rounds at Elmhurst, Ill., 2011.^[47] 471 by Chris Cree (Tex.) over 18 rounds at the Bayou Bash in Houston, Tex., 2007.^[48]
• Highest average score, multi-day tournament (SOWPODS) – 499.94 by Nigel Richards (MY) over 16 rounds at the 7th Lim Boon Heng Cup, Singapore, 2009.^[49]
• Highest average score, one day tournament (SOWPODS) – 548 by Jackson Smylie of Toronto, Ontario over 5 rounds at Caledon, Ontario
• Highest average score, one day tournament (OTCWL) – 532 by Jackson Smylie over 4 rounds at North American Scrabble Championship early bird in Las Vegas

Two other records are believed^{[citation needed]} to have been achieved under a British format known as the «high score rule», in which a player’s tournament result is determined only by the player’s own scores, and not by the differentials between that player’s scores and the opponents’. Play in this system «encourages elaborate setups often independently mined by the two players»,^[32] and is significantly different from the standard game in which defensive considerations play a major role. While the «high score» rule has led to impressively high records, it is currently out of favor.^{[citation needed]}

• High game score of 1,049 by Phil Appleby of Lymington, Hampshire, UK, on June 25, 1989, in Wormley, Hertfordshire, UK. His opponent scored just 253 points, giving Appleby a record victory margin of 796 points.
• High single-turn score of 392, by Dr Saladin Karl Khoshnaw^[45] in Manchester, UK, in April 1982. The word he used was CAZIQUES, meaning «native chiefs of West Indian aborigines».

Hypothetical scores in possible and legal but highly unlikely plays and games are far higher, primarily through the use of words that cover three triple-word-score squares. The highest reported score for a single play is 1780 (OSPD) and 1785 (SOWPODS) using oxyphenbutazone.^[50] When only adding the word sesquioxidizing to these official lists, one could theoretically score 2015 (OSPD) and 2044 (SOWPODS) points in a single move.^[50]
The highest reported combined score for a theoretical game based on SOWPODS is 4046 points, constructed by Nathan Hedt of Australia.^{[51][user-generated source][52]}4046 points^{[failed verification]}
Other records are available for viewing at Total Scrabble, an unofficial record book that includes the above as sources and expands on other topics.

In August 1984, Peter Finan and Neil Smith played Scrabble for 153 hours at St. Anselm’s College, Birkenhead, Merseyside, setting a new duration record. A longer record was never recorded by Guinness Book of Records, as the publishers decided that duration records of this nature were becoming too dangerous and stopped accepting them.^[53]

Software[edit]

Computer players[edit]

Maven is a computer opponent for the game created by Brian Sheppard. The official Scrabble computer game in North America uses a version of Maven as its artificial intelligence and is published by Atari. Outside North America, the official Scrabble computer game is published by Ubisoft. Quackle is an open-source alternative to Maven of comparable strength, created by a five-person team led by Jason Katz-Brown.^[54] A Qt cross-platform version of Quackle is available on GitHub.^[55]

Video game versions[edit]

Video game versions of Scrabble have been released for various platforms, including IBM PC compatibles, Mac, Amiga,^[56] Commodore 64,^[57] ZX Spectrum,^[58] Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance,^[59] Nintendo DS,^[60] PlayStation,^[61] PlayStation 4, PlayStation Portable,^[62] iPod, iOS, Game.com, Palm OS, Amstrad CPC, Xbox 360, Kindle,^[63] Wii,^[64] and mobile phones.

The Nintendo DS version of Scrabble 2007 Edition made news when parents became angry over the game’s AI using potentially offensive language during gameplay.^[65]

Web versions[edit]

Several websites offer the possibility to play Scrabble online against other users, such as ScrabbleScores.com, the Internet Scrabble Club and Pogo.com from Electronic Arts (North America only).

Facebook initially offered a variation of Scrabble called Scrabulous as a third-party application add-on. On July 24, 2008, Hasbro filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against its developers.^[66] Four days later, Scrabulous was disabled for users in North America,^[67] eventually reappearing as «Lexulous» in September 2008, with changes made to distinguish it from Scrabble. By December 20, Hasbro had withdrawn its lawsuit.^[68]

Mattel launched its official version of online Scrabble, Scrabble by Mattel, on Facebook in late March 2008.^[69][70] The application was developed by Gamehouse, a division of RealNetworks that was licensed by Mattel.^[70] Since Hasbro controls the copyright for North America with the copyright for the rest of the world belonging to Mattel,^[69] the Gamehouse Facebook application was available only to players outside the United States and Canada.^[70] The version developed by Electronic Arts for Hasbro was available throughout the world.

When Gamehouse ceased support for its application, Mattel replaced it with the Electronic Arts version in May 2013. This decision was met with criticism from its userbase.^[71] The Hasbro version continues to be available worldwide but now uses IP lookup to display Hasbro branding to North American players and Mattel branding to the rest of the world. Electronic Arts have also released mobile apps for Android and iOS, allowing players to continue the same game on more than one platform.

As well as facilities to play occasional games online, there are many options to play in leagues.^[72]

In 2020, the license for Scrabble passed from Electronic Arts to Scopely, which launched the app Scrabble GO on March 5, 2020, with the Electronic Arts version discontinued on June 5, 2020.^[73] The new app was very different, leading to protests, and Scopely soon began to offer a ‘Classic’ version, without some of the extras initially offered: «this updated mode is reimagined to reflect the ask for a streamlined experience. Features such as boosts, rewards and all other game modes are disabled», the company announced.^[74]

Variations[edit]

Super Scrabble[edit]

A new licensed product, Super Scrabble, was launched in North America by Winning Moves Games in 2004 under license from Hasbro, with the deluxe version (with turntable and lock-in grid) released in February 2007. A Mattel-licensed product for the rest of the world was released by Tinderbox Games in 2006. This set comprises 200 tiles in slightly modified distribution to the standard set and a 21×21 playing board.

National versions[edit]

Versions of the game have been released in several other languages.

The game was called Alfapet when it was introduced in Sweden in 1954, but since the mid-1990s, the game has also been known as Scrabble in Sweden. Alfapet is now another crossword game, developed by the owners of the name Alfapet. A Russian version is called Erudit. Versions have been prepared for Dakotah, Haitian Creole, Dakelh (Carrier language), and Tuvan.^[75]

For languages with digraphs counted as single letters, such as Welsh and Hungarian, the game features separate tiles for those digraphs.

An Irish-language version of Scrabble was published by Glór na nGael in 2010. The previous year the same organisation published the Junior version of the game and two years later it republished Junior Scrabble using a two-sided (and two skill level) board.

Television game show versions[edit]

In 1987, a board game was released by Selchow & Righter, based on the game show hosted by Chuck Woolery that aired on NBC from 1984 to 1990 (and for five months in 1993). Billed as the «Official Home Version» of the game show (or officially as the «TV Scrabble Home Game»), gameplay bears more resemblance to the game show than it does to a traditional Scrabble game, although it does utilize a traditional Scrabble gameboard in play.

On September 17, 2011, a new game show based on Scrabble, called Scrabble Showdown, debuted on The Hub with Justin «Kredible» Willman as the host of the program.^[76] Each week, teams play various activities based on the board game in order to win big prizes including a trip to anywhere from around the world.

Games based on Scrabble[edit]

There are numerous variations of the game. While they are similar to the original Scrabble game, they include minor variations. For example, Literati draws random tiles instead of providing a finite number of tiles for the game, assigns different point levels to each letter and has a slightly different board layout, whereas Lexulous assigns eight letters to each player instead of seven. Words with Friends uses a different board layout and different letter values, as does Words of Gold.

Duplicate Scrabble is a popular variant in French speaking countries. Every player has the same letters on the same board and the players must submit a paper slip at the end of the allotted time (usually 3 minutes) with the highest scoring word they have found. This is the format used for the French World Scrabble Championships but it is also used in Romanian and Dutch. There is no limit to the number of players that can be involved in one game, and at Vichy in 1998 there were 1,485 players, a record for French Scrabble tournaments.

Scarabeo [it] is a variant that is much more popular in Italy than the original game. It features a 17×17 grid of cells and peculiar rules.^[77]

In one variation of Scrabble, blanks score points corresponding to the letters the blanks are used to represent. For example, if one played blank to represent a Z, it would get ten; a blank to represent a V or an H would get four; a blank to represent a D would get 2 and blank to represent a T, N, L, S or R or any of the vowels would get one.

Popular among tournament Scrabble players is Clabbers. In Clabbers, any move that consists of anagrams of allowable words is allowed. For example, because ETAERIO is allowable in ordinary Collins Scrabble, EEAIORT would be allowable in Clabbers.^[78]

A junior version, called Junior Scrabble, has been marketed. This has slightly different distributions of frequencies of letter tiles to the standard Scrabble game.

Word games similar to or influenced by Scrabble include Bananagrams, Boggle, Dabble, Nab-It!, Perquackey, Puzzlage, Quiddler, Scribbage, Tapple, Upwords, and WordSpot.

There are also number-based variations, such as Equate (game), GoSum, Mathable, Numble, Numbler, Triolet, Yushino and Numenko.

Gameboard formats[edit]

The game has been released in numerous gameboard formats appealing to various user groups. The original boards included wood tiles and many «deluxe» sets still do.

Tile Lock editions[edit]

Tile Lock editions of Scrabble^[79] and Super Scrabble^[80][81] are made by Winning Moves and feature smaller, plastic tiles that are held in place on the board with little plastic posts. The standard version features exactly the same 100 tiles as regular Scrabble. The Tile Lock Super Scrabble features the same 200 tiles that are in Super Scrabble.

Travel editions[edit]

Editions are available for travelers who may wish to play in a conveyance such as a train or plane or to pause a game in progress and resume later. Many versions thus include methods to keep letters from moving, such as pegboards, recessed tile holders and magnetic tiles. Players’ trays are also designed with stay-fast holders. Such boards are also typically designed to be reoriented by each player to put the board upright during the game, as well as folded and stowed with the game in progress.

• Production and Marketing Company, 1954 – metal hinged box, Bakelite tiles inlaid with round magnets, chrome tile racks, silver-colored plastic bag and cardboard box covered with decorative paper. The box, when opened flat, measures 8+1⁄2 in × 7+3⁄4 in (22 cm × 20 cm) and the tiles measure 1⁄2 in (13 mm) square.
• Spear’s Games, the 1980s – boxed edition with pegboard, plastic tiles with small feet to fit snugly in the pegboard. Racks are clear plastic, allowing some sorting while holding tiles fairly snugly. The set comes with a drawstring plastic bag to draw tiles and a cardboard box. It is possible to save a game in progress by returning the board to the box. There is a risk of players’ trays being mixed and upset, and the box lid, held on by friction, is subject to upset.
• Selchow & Righter, 1980s – pocket edition with plastic «magnetic» board and tiles. Tile racks are also plastic with an asymmetrical shape to provide a handhold. All elements fit in a plastic envelope for travel and to permit a pause in the game. Plastic letters are very small and tend to lose their grip if not placed with slight lateral movement and if they are not perfectly clean. The game format is extremely small, allowing Scrabble games for backpackers and others concerned about weight and size.
• Hasbro Games, 2001 – hinged plastic board with clear tile-shaped depressions to hold tiles in play. Board is in a black, zippered folio such that board and tiles may be folded for travel, even with the game in play. The reverse side of the board contains numbered mounts for racks, holding tiles face down, allowing secure and confidential storage of tiles while a game is paused. Some versions have tile racks with individual tile slots, thus not permitting easy sorting of tiles in a rack. The board, when opened up, measures 24.5 cm × 21.0 cm (9+3⁄4 in × 8+1⁄4 in), and the tiles are 12.3 mm × 12.3 mm × 6.7 mm (1⁄2 in × 1⁄2 in × 1⁄4 in) in size.

Deluxe editions[edit]

At the opposite end, some «deluxe» or «prestige»^[82] editions offer superior materials and features. These include editions on a rotating turntable, so players can always face the board, with the letters upright and a raised grid that holds the tiles in place.^[83][84] Also available are alternative Scrabble boards, often made of glass^[85] or hardwood, that have superior rotating mechanisms and personalized graphics.

Large print and braille editions[edit]

An edition has been released (in association with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB))^[86] with a larger board and letters for players with impaired vision.^[87] The colours on the board are more contrasting, and the font size has been increased from 16 to 24 point. The tiles are in bold 48 point, and have braille labels. A separate braille edition is also available.^[88]

[edit]

Books[edit]

Numerous books about Scrabble have been published, including nonfiction titles helping players improve their game, and fiction titles using the game as a plot device. These include:

• Merriam-Webster’s The Official Scrabble Player’s Dictionary, the Sixth Edition of which was published in 2018. The OSPD is the consistently best-selling official Scrabble book.
• Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis (2001), an introduction to tournament Scrabble and its players. While writing the book, Fatsis became a high-rated tournament player.
• The Scrabble Player’s Handbook, edited by Stewart Holden and Kenji Matsumoto, and written by an international group of tournament players, which gives the information a serious player needs to advance to successful tournament play. Not to be confused with Drue K. Conklin’s 1976 The Official Scrabble Player’s Handbook, The Scrabble Player’s Handbook is available for free download.^[89]

Documentaries[edit]

Numerous documentaries have been made about the game, including:

• Scrabylon (2003), by Scott Petersen, which «gives an up-close look at why people get so obsessed with that seemingly benign game»
• Word Slingers (2002), by Eric Siblin and Stefan Vanderland (produced for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)), which follows four expert Canadian players at the 2001 World Championship in Las Vegas
• Word Wars (2004) by Eric Chaikin and Julian Petrillo, about the «tiles and tribulations on the Scrabble game circuit»

See also[edit]

• Anagrams — Public domain game, predecessor to Scrabble
• Anamonic
• Blanagram
• Boggle
• Countdown (game show)
• RSVP (board game)
• Scrabble in Hong Kong
• Upwords
• Words with Friends
• Wordscraper

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Arneson, Erik (June 26, 2019). «How To Win at Scrabble and Words With Friends: How to Practice, Play, and Win Strategically». The Spruce Crafts.
• McElwee, Kevin (December 13, 2018). «Does Scrabble Need To Be Fixed?». Nautilus. Archived from the original on December 9, 2019. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
• «Scrabble as a tool for language preservation in Tuvan». ScholarSpace. Manoa, Hawaii. An article relating how Scrabble has been adapted to other languages, describing how it was prepared for the Tuvan languages, and giving directions about how to adapt it.
• Wallace, Robert (December 14, 1953). «A Man Makes a Best-Selling Game — Scrabble — and Achieves His Ambition (Spelled Out Above): Little Business In the Country». LIFE Magazine. p. 101.

External links[edit]

• Scrabble at Hasbro.com
• Scrabble at MattelGames.com
• Scrabble at BoardGameGeek
• .GCG specification describes a computer file format for recording and annotating Scrabble games.
• Scrabble Word Database (Multi-language)
• U.S. Patent 2,752,158 – Game apparatus – Expired patent for the jagged edges of bonus squares, which were added so that one need not lift previously placed tiles in order to see the bonus.

Player associations

• Association of British Scrabble Players
• NASPA Games (formerly North American Scrabble Players Association; sanctions club and tournament play in North America)
• Scrabble Australia
• World English-Language Scrabble Players Association (WESPA)

We love playing word board games. Discover some of the best board games with words for adults, kids, and families. Card word games included.

We grew up in households filled with board games. We had Hungry Hippos, Pictionary, Operation, Battleship, and of course, card games like Uno and Old Maid.

Can you tell what era we grew up in? We also obsessively watched Garfield and Friends on Saturday mornings.

As we grew older and found our true loves — books, adult grape juice, and travel — our gaming habits matured.

We started playing more word board games like Taboo and Scattergories. We also craved the best classic word-based board games like Balderdash, Scrabble, and Boggle.

Today, our coat closets and desk shelves are nearly bursting from the seams with word board games for adults. And, nothing beats playing card games with words over drinks.

With so many games out there, how do you choose the best word board games? Which games are family-friendly and adults only?

Below, discover some of our favorite classic word board games along with newer games that are perfect for a rainy day inside with friends and family.

Don’t forget to let us know your favorite word board game in the comments. Let’s get started!

Explore all of our gift guides, including more board games.

Classic Word Board Games

What are some sentimental classic word games that remind you of your childhood? Here are a few of ours:

Boggle

Although we’ve never been amazing at Boggle — our minds just don’t work like that — set the timer, shake up letters, and watch where they fall.

Try to make as many four-letter plus words as you can before time runs out. Super Boggle is a tad bigger so each round lasts for 3-minutes.

Scrabble

Scrabble is probably one of the most well-known classic word board games perfect for ages 8+. Players take turns making words with letter tiles to earn points.

Bananagrams

Bananagrams is a word board game like Scrabble fit for the whole family. Players attempt to make crossword word grids and is all about spelling.

Bananagrams is super portable and great for traveling.

Scattergories

One of our favorite word games as a kid, every household needs Scattergories.

Roll the letter dice. In a set amount of time, fill in categories using only words that start with that letter. The more unique and longer, the better.

Word Search

Word Search is a classic game with words. Search for the words in the puzzle. These are incredibly easy to print out at home too.

Mad Libs

Mad Libs was all the rage in the 90s. Mad Libs is one of the most fun board games with words for writers in the making. Get creative and thoughtful with your vocabulary.

Grab a pen to fill in the blanks for a half-completed story. Each blank asks for an adjective, noun, or something slightly more specific.

Make your narrative as silly or as serious and real as you like.

Word Board Games Like Scrabble

Are you looking for word board games similar to Scrabble? Try these:

Dabble

Dabble is a word board game that the entire family can play. Recommended for 8+ years old, players race to spell out 5 words using their 20 tiles.

Two to four people can participate, and this word creation game is perfect for spelling and vocabulary building.

Quiddler Word Game

A fast-paced card game with words perfect for 1 to 10 players, Quiddler asks participants to organize the letter cards in their hands into short words.

With each round, players take on more cards and the highest score wins.

Upwords

Upwords is exactly like Scrabble except that players can build words on top of existing ones. The higher you stack your letters, the more points you earn. Upwords is for 2-4 players, ages 8+.

One Up!

Be the first person to make a word out of the tiles flipped upside down in the center of the table. But, beware as players can steal your word by adding their own letters.

Family-Friendly Word Board Games

What are some of the best word board games that you can play with the entire family? Here are a few:

Super Big Boggle

There are a ton of versions of the word board game, Boggle. Super Big Boggle is one of them.

Imagine Boggle but with a 6×6 letter grid. Players have 6-minutes to create as many words as they can.

Pass The Pen

Pass The Pen is a fun and fast-paced game for families that incorporates words and drawing. You have 10 seconds to draw a picture while all of the other players have to guess what it is.

If someone guesses correctly, you earn points. If not, you pass the pen to the next player.

P For Pizza

P For Pizza is a family-friendly board game with words for children 8+. This game is best for 2 and 4 players.

The goal is to shout out a word that links the letter on one card to the category on another. Find color-coated cards of varying difficulty and with different categories.

The first player to collect nine pizza cards and build their giant pizza slice wins the game.

Herd Mentality

Herd Mentality is another fun card game with words perfect with 4 to 20 players that are ages 10+.

Read aloud a random question: “What is the best way to cook an egg?” Players must quickly write down their answers.

The goal is to figure out what everyone else is thinking. If your answer is in the majority, you win cows.

If your answer is unique, you get stuck with the pink cow.

Word A Round

Word A Round is an award-winning board game that is fun for everyone. Words are positioned in one continuous ring.

Players must figure out where the word starts and be the first to read it aloud.

Danger Word

Created by Ellen DeGeneres, Danger Word is best for ages 10+ and is one of the most fun card word games.

Guess the winning word to win. If you accidentally say the danger word, you lose the card.

It’s In The Bag

If you love card games with words like charades and Pictionary, try It’s In The Bag.

There are three rounds: describe the word, describe the word using only one word, and act out the word.

Blank Slate

If you need a word-guessing board game for family game night, Blank Slate asks players to predict what everyone else is thinking.

Write a word to complete the phrase, and earn points if you match only one other person.

Word Board Games For Adults (and Teens)

In need of word games for adults and teens? Try these:

4-Bidden Words

A game recommended for 17+, 4-Bidden Words players compete against a timer to guess the Buzz Word without using any of the forbidden words.

This adult guessing word board game is recommended for holidays, reunions, and party nights.

Balderdash

Balderdash is the perfect board game for adults, tweens, and teens. Players roll the dice for one of 5 categories: famous people, words, initials, laws, and movies.

Each player writes down what they think the real definition or explanation is while one player records the correct answer.

Players then vote on which answer they think is right.

Codenames

Codenames is a contemporary and social word board game recommended for ages 14+. This game is best with 4 players.

Teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their secret agents first. Spymasters give one-word clues, which indicate multiple words on the board.

Teammates must avoid guessing words that belong to their opponents. Don’t get caught by the assassin.

Taboo

A classic card word game for adults and teens, Taboo is recommended for 13+.

We love to play this one around the holidays. Guess the word based on clues without saying the forbidden word.

What Do You Meme?

Recommended for 17+, compete to create the funniest memes.

What Do You Meme? is a newer word board game for adults only that is sure to make you laugh. You can also order expansion packs.

What Other Word Board Games Do You Love?

What are some of the best word board games that you’ve played or created? Are there any word card games that we are missing that you absolutely love? Let us know in the comments.

You May Also Enjoy:

Drinking Board Games For Adults
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Word games are very popular. But what is beyond Boggle, Bananagrams, and Scrabble, which are the most weel-known (at least for me)?. Here is what I discovered.

I found 25 word and letter tabletop games that belong in the following categories:

• Letter Board games, for example, Upwords
• Letter Tile games, like Jabuka
• Letter Dice games, such as Fishing for Words
• Word Board games, like Word Search

Tabletop Games Comparison Table

In this comparison table, I arranged the tabletop games according to types so that you can choose right away the best game to play at home or at school.

Letter Board Games

In this section, I list letter games that have players build words that they already know (by assembling letters). These games are not intended to learn new words, although you might learn some from the words the others are playing. They help learn word orthography though, and are also a way to encourage children to use a dictionary, as they are often used to check is a word is valid.

Scrabble (Hasbro)

★★★★☆ 

For Families | Age 8+ | 2-4 Players | Author: Alfred Mosher Butts

Throughout the years, Scrabble remains a top-rated crossword board game that excites players around the world.

In case you have not yet played scrabble :

• The main object of the game is to accumulate the highest score possible by creating words with high-scoring letter tiles and placing them on premium squares onto the gameboard.
• Premium squares are gameboard spaces that multiply the value of the letter or word placed on them (Double letter, Triple letter, Double letter word, Triple Letter word).

Scrabble contains:

• A gameboard, 4 tile holders, A cloth tile bag
• 100 letter tiles (2 of them are blank tiles that stand for any letter)

Old versions (long ago!) were sturdier, heavier (made of quality wood), with letters engraved in gold, but this newer version has bigger tiles (good for seniors who are the most frequent players of Scrabble).

More recent games presented here propose gameplays meant to improve on Scrabble’s shortcomings:

• Waiting for other players’ turn (who typically might think for some time before playing) which causes playing time to be over an hour
• Rare letters score high, which means that to win, players have to use a specific subset of the common vocabulary (pro scrabble players know this list of high scoring words by heart)

Besides, validating words often requires a dictionary, and scoring can sometimes be complicated.

Despite these, scrabble can be played by children aged 8 years old and up because the mechanics are easy to learn, and it enables them to bond with older generations. I highly recommend modifying the scoring in the following way to make it more interesting for children:

• 6 to 8 year-olds multiply the final score by 3
• 9 to 11 year-olds multiply the final score by 2
• 12 to 14 year-olds multiply the final score by 1.5

That way, children have the same odds of winning as adults, and will find the game much more interesting.

Scrabble Junior Game (Hasbro) 

★★★☆☆ 

For Families | Age 7+ | 2-4 Players 

Scrabble Junior Game is a 2-in-1 crossword game where players form words by putting letter tiles onto the game board. 

It includes four cute playing tokens, 105 letter tiles (not very readable though) and a double-sided gameboard which can be played by beginners and advanced players. 

Beginners match the letter tiles to the letters on the gameboard to collect points. These points determine the number of spaces the player’s token moves on the game board. The player with the highest score wins the game. 

Advanced players use the other side of the gameboard to play the traditional Scrabble game. However, the twist is there are no extra points on the spaces, making the score easy to calculate. The score of each player is also kept track of by placing the token on a track (that removes the need for scoresheets or for remembering each player’s score).

7 or 8 year-olds can play the game for beginners. 

I like the design of the gameboard, its illustrations and the game pieces because they are stimulating for children.

Other benefits of the gameplay for beginners include:

• They will learn the correct spelling of words by matching their letter tiles to the letters onto the gameboard. 
• They will be familiar with varying word lengths and letter combinations.

Its major disadvantage is that the game becomes dull after several plays because the words on the beginner’s gameboard are always the same (there are only 25 words).

Upwords (Winning Moves)

★★★☆☆

For Families | Age 9+ | 2-4 Players | Author: Elliot Rudell

Upwords has been in the market since 1983.

This game contains 64 letter tiles, a gameboard grid, 4 tile risers, a plastic storage bag and an instruction guide.

The goal of the game is to stack letters on top of played words on the grid to score more points. If you are used to Scrabble, scoring in this game can be a little challenging. That is why it may take more than 30 minutes to finish the game.

Despite that, this game is good for exercising the mind because it encourages players to

• Challenge themselves to build a 7-letter word or use 2-letter words
• Think of a new word by adding letter tiles on top (this inspires players to learn other word formations, paronyms and meanings)
• Practice spelling
• Avoid plurals (this prevents players from being lazy with words)

I like this game because it is forgiving or not intimidating (players may get inspiration from played words or they can pass a turn if they cannot create a word which is great for beginners)

Overall, I recommend this game to children aged 9 years old and up because the gameplay allows them to

• be creative with words
• maximize the words they know for a certain word formation or letter order
• Talk indirectly about different parts of speech
• Learn new word formations and adopt them in the next game.

By the way, this game had national tournaments in Hungary and Turkey.

Wordigo (River Edge Game Company)

★★★☆☆

For Families | Age 8+ | 2-4 Players

All players can play at the same time in Wordigo. Their focus is on building words before the timer runs out.

This game includes

• 4 sets of tiles (49 tiles per set)
• 4 drawstring letter bags
• 8 gameboards (2 copies for each design, there are 4 designs)
• Rules of play
• A 7-minute sand timer
• A score pad

It only takes 7 minutes to finish each round and 30 minutes to complete the whole game. The player with the highest score after three rounds wins the game.

This game is unique because

• The designs of the gameboards determine the difficulty of the gameplay (Players can choose how to progress in the game)
• Matches are available for solo and multiplayer games

Therefore, this game teaches players to:

• Spell words correctly (dictionaries are allowed)
• Strategize in using consonants and vowels to score high points (it’s difficult to decide because consonants carry points and vowels are multipliers)

I recommend this game to be played with adults because scoring can be a little confusing. It may take a while to get used to the arrows that must be followed for each path.

Appletters (Bananagrams)

★★★★★

For Families and Teachers | Age 6+ | 1-4 Players

In Appletters, players race to get rid of all the tiles they were dealt with by building a word and adding them at the beginning or the end of the played word.

This game has 110 letter tiles and a red apple-shaped storage bag. The letter distribution is as follows:

• 1 tile: J, K, Q , V, W, X, Z
• 2 tiles: B, C, F, G
• 3 tiles: H, M , U , Y
• 4 tiles: D, P
• 5 tiles: L
• 7 tile: N
• 8 tiles: O, R, S, T
• 9 tiles: I
• 10 tiles: A
• 12 tiles: E

At the start of the game, each player gets a total of eight letter tiles. The remaining tiles are referred to as the CORE wherein when players fail to build a word, they must pick 3 tiles from it and shout “PICK and PASS”.

To dispose of the letter tiles, players must build a word that can be connected to the first or last letter of the word formed by the previous player.

In the process, players take turns in creating words that can be read horizontally or vertically like a word snake.

The first player to use all the tiles must shout “How do you like them Apples?” and is the winner.

Appletters:

• Is easy to set up and store
• Includes three levels of gameplay (for younger players, removing difficult tiles like Q, W, X and Z makes the game more fun)
• Has easy mechanics
• Enables inexperienced players to use a dictionary while waiting for their turn
• Has rules that can be modified for better gameplay and to encourage interaction among players. For example, allow trading tiles among players.

Compared to other Bananagrams’ games, Appletters is more player-friendly for children because:

• The letters are neatly printed in bold red ink against white background which makes the letters appear larger
• The letter tiles are thicker which enables to put them standing (so that other players do not see your tiles and cannot anticipate what you are going to do)
• All players play on the same word list – this is more interactive and enjoyable

There is also a version of Appletters that contains letter tiles made of cardboard kept in a storage box instead of a pouch.

Bananagrams (Bananagrams)

★★★☆☆

For Families and Teachers | Age 9+ | 2-8 Players | Author: Abraham Nathanson

Bananagrams has had a lot of success since it was launched in January 2006. It is composed of 144 tiles but unlike other games published by the same manufacturer, this original game scores highly in:

• Replayability
• Opportunity for gameplay variation (the game guide offers alternative ways of playing the game)

Players work independently as they form a grid of vertical and horizontal words, connected to each other.

Players have each their own tiles and the remaining are face down in the center of the table. This pile is called the BUNCH. There are two important ACTIONS:

• DUMPING- Every time a player wants to return the letter back to the bunch, the player shouts DUMP and gets three tiles from the bunch. This move does not affect other players.
• PEELING- When a player calls out PEEL, all players must get a tile from the bunch

The object of the game is to get rid of all the tiles in the bunch. The first player with no remaining tiles is the winner of the game, and shouts “BANANAS”. He wins if all the words are valid – else he is a “ROTTEN BANANA” and out of the game.

What I like the most about Bananagrams is that players can freely rearrange their letters and that there is no scoring.

Overall, Bananagrams is a great game.

• at home with children aged 9 years old and up (too competitive before that, and in any case competition with adults would be too difficult)
• as reinforcement activity in school for children aged 10 years old and up.

Bananagrams Party Edition (Bananagrams)

★★★★☆

For Families | Age 9+ | 2-8 Players

Just like the other Bananagrams, the main goal of Bananagrams Party Edition is to be the first player to use all the tiles in building a crossword grid. The catch is players are presented with 14 superpower tiles on top of the original 114 tiles.

These 14 special party tiles enable players to choose among their opponents to carry out an action that would slow them down in completing their crosswords, for example:

• Bombastic– If you have one bonb tile, the word grids of your opponents are safe. However, if you draw two bomb tiles, you can destroy an opponent’s word grid so that he’ll start over.
• Single-handed– This tile slows down the chosen opponent because it requires the player to use only one hand in arranging tiles.
• Switcheroo– The player who has this tile switches places with another player and inherits the word grid and party tile action.
• The Re-gifter- Choose three of your loose tiles or from your grid and give them to your chosen opponent.
• The Thief– Players can steal a tile from their opponent’s word grid or a party tile to advance in the game.  
• The Shield– This is the most coveted special tile because it protects the player from all the mischiefs in this game except for Bombastic.

The additional tiles

• Make the game funny, more exciting and challenging
• Encourage players to strategize and interact with other players

This version of bananagrams is also competitive and difficult to play with young or weaker players. I suggest giving them party tiles (older players cannot use them) to give them an upper hand, and removing some special tiles, for example:

• Announcer-Player announces each new word made on the opponent’s grid
• Take a Lap– Players run around the table
• Thumbless- Players cannot use their thumb throughout the game
• Spell It –Player spell the word “PEEL” with their hands instead of saying it whenever they exchange their tiles to the bunch.

Another way to encourage slow players is by allowing them to continue the game even when a wrong word was spotted on their grid. Instead of asking the player to step out of the game, the player may remove the invalid word from the grid and fix it.

Compared to Scrabble, it is more enjoyable because you don’t need to count scores.

I highly recommend this game because of the unique experience each player gets each time they play this game. The power tiles are a good source of laughter.

Big Letter Bananagrams (Bananagrams)

★★★☆☆

For Seniors | Age 9+, especially for playing with seniors | 2-8 Players

Big Letter Bananagrams have similar gameplay to the Classic Bananagrams. The only difference is the size of the tiles which are designed to help players with poor vision (larger tiles with letters printed in a thicker font).

These letters take up a lot of space.

This game has an interesting backstory. Its development was inspired by an 85-year-old Chicago resident and dedicated Bananagrams player Jan Siemsen. He suffers from Macular Degeneration which is the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly. That’s why a portion of the sales proceeds of this game were donated to American Macular Degeneration Foundation.

Double Bananagrams (Bananagrams)

★★★☆☆

For Families and Teachers | Age 9+ | 2-8 Players

Double Bananagrams is a mind-exercising game that can be played solo or with a team composed of 4 players.

As the name of the game implies, players have twice as many tiles (288) but the gameplay is still the same.

I like that

• The opportunity to build words in varied lengths and combinations is high (more letters, more words)
• The tiles can be used in other games (the instruction guide offers suggestions for game variants)
• The game can be played in family gatherings, camping and as reinforcement activity in classrooms

I have reservations in introducing this game to children younger than 9 years old because they will need help in checking the spelling.

Older children can

• control the length and arrangement of words
• practice various letter combinations
• observe correct spelling
• consult the dictionary to make sure that they construct valid words which lead them to learn the meaning of words indirectly

Pairs in Pears (Bananagrams)

★★★★☆

For Families and Teachers | Age 5+ | 2-4 Players

In Pairs in Pears, patterns are important. Players must make sets of two words that are crossed and use the same letter tile pattern. An alternative is to score more points if the letters all share the same pattern.

Visually, it is interesting to find a complete set of alphabet in four different letter patterns: solid, outline, lines and dots. (a total of 104 plastic tiles).

The instruction leaflet includes activities for Pre-readers (5-6 years old), Beginner readers (6 years old) and advanced readers (8-10 years old) which is great.

All in all, aside from the original gameplay which is good for children aged 8 years old and up, I recommend this game to be played with children aged 6 years old because the letter tiles are useful for studying

• Letter groupings
• Word pairs
• Rhyming words

Dabble (Dabble)

★★★☆☆

For Families | Age 10+ | 2-4 Players | Author: George Weiss

Dabble is a fast-thinking word game that requires players to shout “Dabble” as soon as they finished creating 5 words using 20 tiles.

Players are given 5 minutes to complete these 5 words which must consist of a

• 2 letter word
• 3 letter word
• 4 letter word
• 5 letter word
• 6 letter word

The first player to complete 5 words before the timer runs out is the winner of the round. Losers do not earn any point while the winner gets 25 additional points and the points from the losers’ unused tiles.

The first player to obtain 500 points wins the game.

This game consists of 142 letter tiles and specialty tiles.

• letter tiles carry different numerical values for scoring
• specialty tiles have no point value (includes blank tiles and 2 apostrophe tiles, some players remove them to avoid distraction)

It also comes with 4 tile risers and a 5-minute sand timer.

I like that:

• Players can modify the rules (they can decide how many rounds will they play or how long each round will take.)
• It has extra Spanish alphabet letters (helpful to build Spanish vocabulary)

But scoring is a bit complex. You can play Dabble with children aged 10 years old and up though because

• it offers good practice in creating 2-6 letter words
• Players become familiar with varying letter combinations in different word lengths
• Helps develop spelling skills

Jabuka (Jabuka)

★★★★★

For Families and Teachers | Age 8+ | 2-8 Players | Author: Martin Russocki

Jabuka is a coffee-themed word tile game that features coffee-bean shaped tiles that can be rotated to create words. The player with the most beans at the end of the game is the winner.

This game contains 100 dark colored beans and 8 light-colored blank beans.

• Blank beans can stand for any letter. Each players gets one at the beginning of the game.
• Some dark beans have yellow letters called “Twisties”, meaning, these letters can be rotated to form new letters. (Example is M which can be rotated and used as E and W.)
• The white letters are used as is.

The three valid actions in building a word in this game are:

• Twist the yellow letters (M for W, d for p)
• Add a letter to a played word
• Rearrange the letters

Players can take the letter tiles from the pile or steal them from an opponent.

I like that:

• The letter rotating is a very original feature of the game, which creates unusual possibilities
• This letter rotating possibility can be used (without the rules, just as an exercise or with much simpler rules) with 3 to 5 year-old children to improve their visual discrimination of letters. At that age, children generally identify objcts visually without a specific direction attached to them. They often cannot discriminate a d and a p which are the same object for them because they are equal if rotated. Besides, the letters have been purposely built for that, which is unique. For that reason, I give 4 stars, but it is for a completely different usage than the author thought!
• The gameplay is easy to understand
• Players can play independently or in a 4 player team

Oneup! (Oneupmanship)

★★★★☆

For Families | Age 7+ | 2-4 Players

Another word game that children aged 7 years old and up can enjoy is Oneup!

In this game, players take turns in flipping one tile at a time to form a word and score points. Each letter is worth one point so scoring is easy.

When all tiles are turned over, the player with the highest score wins the game.

The catch is players are not always lucky in flipping tiles. On top of that, other players can steal their tiles to build a new word.

The game is competitive. I find it better to play with a partner although this game can accommodate 4 players.

In contrast, the good points of this game are

• It allows players to combine words (opportunities for word building is high, from simple words to complex ones)
• Exposes players to compound words, root words and more
• Players become familiar with various letter arrangements and word formations (with just one letter, they can change a word)
• Encourages correct spelling

Letter Dice Games

Bananagrams Duel (Bananagrams)

★★★★☆

For Families and Teachers | Age 7+ | 2 Players

Bananagrams Duel features 24 letter cubes that contains 144 letters, 20 banana-themed cards and an instruction guide.

Pach player takes 12 letter cubes and have one minute to form words that intersect horizontally or vertically.

The first player to use all his 12 cubes wins the round and gets a banana card. The first player to collect 10 banana cards wins the game.

This game is interesting because:

• Players can tweak the rules easily (like setting a longer time limit)
• Dice enable to have more letters available than the same amount of tiles
• You can invent other games for small children like “guess which dice has been changed in a word”, unscramble a word and many more

This game feels like Boggle without a cube grid so there is more freedom to create and rearrange letters.

You can play with children aged 7 years old and up to practice spelling and connecting 2 to 5 words in one minute or more.

Boggle (Hasbro)

★★★☆☆

For Families | Age 8+ | Age 2-4 players | Author: Allan Turoff

Boggle is a classic word game created by Allan Turoff.

It includes a 3-minute sand timer, 16 letter dice, a cube grid with dome cover and an instruction guide.

Players have 90 seconds to three minutes to list down words that they can spot from the 16 letter dice shaken inside the cube grid with the dome. Words can be made horizontally, vertically or diagonally. They must be at least 3 letters long.

Similar words do not earn points so players must be able to identify unique words (as many as they can before the timer runs out).

The player with the highest score wins the game.

Here’s how to score points.

• 3-4 letters- 1 point
• 5 letters- 2 points
• 6 letters- 3 points
• 7 letters- 5 points
• 8+ letters- 11 points

Compared to other tabletop games, this has always been neat, compact and a favorite pastime during family gatherings or vacation. The gameplay is easier to learn than Scrabble.

I like that:

• The letters are easy to read
• I can play it alone and set my own goal like beating my previous score
• It can also be played competitively with 3 more players
• The draw is random so every round is different

I recommend introducing this game to children aged 8 years old and up so that they will be exposed to words that have varied formations, letter pairings and length.

Boggle Junior (Hasbro)

★★★★☆

For Families | Age 3-5 | Age 1-2 Players

Boggle Junior is multi-level game for kids aged 3 to 5 years old. The main goal is to match the pictures with words by spelling out the letters on the game tray using dice.

When they have mastered this gameplay, they can move on to the variation called “Cover it” where players cover the words and recite the spelling from memory.

This game is comprised of:

• A Game tray
• 30 double-sided picture cards that contain 3 and 4 letter words
• 8 letter dice
• A game guide

I like that Boggle Junior:

• Is self-correcting (Children may review the words as flashcards before challenging themselves to spell the words out either aloud or with dice)
• The game pieces are easy to manipulate
• The picture cards are colorful and appealing to children
• Children may start with 3 letter words first then increase the level of difficulty using 4 letter words and then mix them

Big Boggle (Hasbro)

★★★☆☆

For Families | Age 8+ | Age 2-6 players

Big Boggle is a bigger version of the famous 3-minute word game, Boggle. This game uses

• a 5×5 grid base with lid (the original was 4 x 4)
• a sand timer
• 25 letter dice (from the standard 16 letter dice)
• 1 double letter dice
• Instructions

Compared to the original game, in this version:

• Players start searching for 4 letter words
• more players can participate since the dice and grid are bigger, the letters are more readable for 6 players
• Double letter dice are provided so that players can form more long words.  (It features letter combinations such as Qu, Er, In, An, He and Th)
• The letters are painted in blue

You can play with children aged 8 years old and up because the introduction of the double letter dice directs them to be familiar with words that have those letter combinations.

Super Big Boggle (Winning Moves)

★★★☆☆

For Families| Age 8+ | Age 2-8 players

Super Big Boggle is the biggest version of Boggle. It has

• A 6 x6 cube grid with dome
• 36 letter dice which represent 222 letters
• A double letter cube which features 6 most common 2-letter pairings
• 4-minute sand timer
• A special blank dice
• Instruction guide

Similar to Big Boggle, it has a double letter dice that features letter combinations such as Qu, He, In, An, Th and Er.

A few tweaks in the gameplay include:

• Minimum word size is 5-letter word
• The timer is set to 4 minutes
• The blank dice prevents players from connecting letters or forming words (they are called word stoppers)

I like this iteration because it can accommodate 2-8 players but just the same, players reap the same benefits such as

•  learning to spell the words correctly
•  Expanding active vocabulary by identifying 5 letter words or more.

Because of its size, I think it is a good game to introduce to children aged 8 years old and up (without the word stopper which can frustrate them).

Campbell’s Alphabet Dice Game (Wood Expressions, Inc)

★★★☆☆

For Families| Age 8+ | Age 2-6 players

 Campbell’s Alphabet Dice Game is a Campbell’s soup – inspired word dice game. It has 36 letter dice.

Each round is called a “Serving”. Players are given equal number of dice each. They compete in building words in crossword fashion style until one player runs out of dice. The first player to use all the dice wins the round.

The object of the game is to get the lowest score possible after 4 rounds. However, players must be careful on the 4^th round because the score is counted double.

Black letters count one point and red letters 2 points.

Players may roll the dice if stuck on a letter (It is called re-heating)

I find this set cool because the dice are very readable, the opportunity to build longer words is high (in fact, players can build sentences aside from words), and you can create your own rules or games like unscrambling letters to form words.

Fishing for Words (University Games)

★★★☆☆

For Families | Age 8+ | Age 2-4 Players | Author: Jim Keifer

In Fishing for Words, players have five chances to create a high scoring word after rolling the dice. Players take turns in using the remaining dice to build a word that they can connect to the previously played word. After five rounds, the player or the team with the highest score wins the game.

This game contains

• 10 wooden dice
• Dice mat
• Score pad
• Rules

The good points of this game include:

• The gameplay is fast-paced and easy to follow
• The dice look neat and durable
• Scoring is easy because the player who fails to come up with a word automatically loses (I think that’s fair even for beginners, they can quickly move on and try again)

Roll A Word (Junior Learning Inc)

★★★★☆

For Families and Teachers | Age 4-9 | Age 2 Players

Roll a Word does not come with instructions but there are plenty of activities that can be made from its 10 dice which include:

• Identifying letters
• Practicing spelling CVC, CVCC and CCVC words

The preferred gameplay is rolling the dice and grouping the upper faces of the dice to form a word.

However, to make the game more engaging for children aged 4 to 6 years old, you can set five rounds and give them a chance to roll the dice twice before forfeiting their turn.

There are great points for education:

• The letters on the dice are colorful, attractive and readable
• The double letter dice feature letters that are helpful in word formation like:
  • Consonant digraphs (for example, ch, sh, ff)
  • Vowel digraphs (ee, ea, oi)
  • R-controlled vowels (ar, er, ur)

This is ideal for one-on-one sessions. I wish the set was bigger so that it can be used in larger groups in the classroom.

Word for Word (Learning Resources)

★★★★★

For Teachers| Age 7+| 2-4 Players

In Word for Word , players have 2 minutes to list as many unique words as they can make from the selected reading rods. The player with the greatest number of uncommon words is the winner.

This game is composed of

• 112 color-coded rods
• Two-minute Timer
• 4 pencils
• Score pads
• Instructions

The game play is a bit similar to Boggle. Rods have the peculiarity that you can use 4 different faces per rod (versus 6 on dice), and that you can connect the rods.

The main attraction is the availability of the following reading rods:

• 31 blue consonant rods
• 21 red vowel rods
• 18 yellow with red print word families rods
• 29 yellow with black print two-letter and three letter word endings
• 9 green beginning and ending blends
• 4 blank replacement rods

There are five levels of gameplay and here’s how to set them up:

• Level 1 (Easiest): Use 4 yellow rods (red print) and 6 blue rods
• Level 2: Connect 4 yellow rods (black print) and 6 blue rods
• Level 3: Group 2 green rods, 3 yellow (Black print) rods, 3 yellow (red print) rods and 4 blue rods
• Level 4: Select 2 green rods, 2 yellow (black print) rods, 2 yellow (red print) rods, 4 blue rods and 2 red rods
• Level 5 (Hardest):  Use 2 green rods, 2 yellow (black print) rods, 6 blue rods, and 4 red rods

For young players, the game guide recommends starting with:

• 4 blue rods and 2 red rods or
• 3 blue rods and 3 yellow (red print) rods

Moreover, the game guide listed several variations and rule modifications, so check them out as well.

The things I like about this game are:

• There is progression (players can feel their improvement because there are five game levels to try)
• It offers unique tactile experience of checking all the sides of the rods to get all possible word combinations, writing the words on a pad and breaking apart the rods before passing them to the next player
• The pieces are appealing to children because it reminds them of Lego and other blocks game

Unlike most games that require students to make a mental note of the spelling of words, this set presents a memory-enhancing experience of constructing words with physical rods and themes like

• Using blends, digraphs, rhymes and more
• Controlling word lengths, starting letters and word endings

I recommend playing this game

• on one-on-one session with young children aged 7 to 9 years old
• with 2-4 players if they are independent learners, presumably aged 8 years old and up.

Word Spin (Geospace)

★★★★★

For Families | Age 8+ | Age 2-10 Players

Word Spin contains 8 magnetic wheels with 10 letters each.

Players take turns rearranging the wheels and spinning them to create high scoring words. Each letter carries a numerical value and the player with the highest score wins the round.

Aside from this gameplay, the game guide lists instructions for 10 different games that players can enjoy using these rotating wheels.

I like that:

• The wheels are compact and easy to secure in a bag
• Children find the magnetic wheels amusing so encouraging them to find words is easy
• Challenging students to build words composed of 2 letters to 8 letters is possible
• Themes can be introduced to target vocabulary
• Can be played alone or up to 10 players

It can also be used in treasure-hunting or detective-themed games.

Overall, Word spin offers a lot of fun and freedom in word building.

Word Board Games

Blank Slate (Goliath Games)

★★★☆☆

For Families| Age 8+ | 3-8 Players

Blank Slate is a party game comprised of

• 250 double-sided word cue cards
• 8 write and wipe slates
• 8 dry erase markers
• Instruction guide
• A scoreboard

The object of the game is to fill in the missing word in the cue card and their answer must match with one player but not all players. Points are given to players that have matching answers. The first player to reach 25 points wins the game.

I like the gameplay because it is easy to learn. However, predicting another player’s answer is difficult.

Other good points of this game include:

• Children enjoy writing on write and wipe boards
• Scoring is easy (players can track their achievement)
• Encourages interaction among players

Despite the fun this game offers, I have a few suggestions:

• If played with children, adults should be careful about their answers. Otherwise, some cue cards are not appropriate for young players.
• Setting a timer will speed up the game and make it more challenging for advanced players.
• For beginners, sorting the cards first or making up new categories will make the game more enjoyable for them.

All in all, this game stimulates interest in listening to what other people have on mind. It is a good family game.

Word Search (Goliath Games)

★★★☆☆

For Families| Age 7+ | Age 2-4 players

In Word Search, players race to find on the circular gameboard the target word revealed at the bottom. The player who successfully finds the word places colored markers on top of the letters. The player with greatest number of colored tiles wins the game.

This game contains

• 8 double-sided game cards that contain 16 puzzles (a total of 464 words to search)
• a circular gameboard
• 280 colored marking tiles

At the start of the game, each player picks a color to determine the markers that will be used throughout the game.

“Word serach” opens opportunities to learn unfamiliar words and look for their meanings after the game.

Other Word Tabletop Games

Blends Dominoes (Junior Learning Inc)

★★★☆☆

For Families | Age 5-6 | Age 1-2 players

Blends Dominoes  is a domino matching game suitable for children aged 5-6 years old.

It contains a tin storage and 28 plastic dominoes that are designed for helping children to read, spell and learn blend words.

The pros of this game are:

• There are cute illustrations that serve as clues for answers
• Encourages players to read aloud or produce the sounds of the words they create

I recommend this game for developing basic phonetic skills.

Tapple (Rejects from Studios)

★★★☆☆

For Families| Age 8-up | Age 2-8 players

Tapple gives players 10 seconds to provide an answer according to a category. The game involves three actions:

• Say the answer
• Press or tap the letter key
• Reset the Timer at the center

To win, players must collect three category cards. A category card is given to the last player left in each round.

This game contains 36 double-sided theme cards and a Tapple wheel. The timer needs a double A battery but it is not included in the game set.

Here are some pros and cons:

• 144 categories to choose from (two categories on each card side which can be sorted according to difficulty)
• Compact (cards can be stored at the back of the wheel)
• The timer adds pressure and fun (not good for beginners though)
• it encourages word rapid recall (difficult to validate answers because time is running)
• Players cannot concentrate (they have to pay attention to the letters used at the same time think of their answer)
• Rules can be changed
• can decide how many rounds to play
• if players are familiar with the categories after several gameplays, ask players to name 2-3 answers in 10 seconds
• Can be played alone or with 2-7 players (if played with 5 or more players, the wheel is passed around instead of rotating it at the center)

I recommend this game to practice existing vocabulary and learn new words according to categories.

Word Witt (Darling LLC)

★★★☆☆

For Families | Age 7+ | Age 1-4 Players | Author: Carrie Chapie

In Word Witt , players flip a card and roll the dice to create as many word combinations as possible within the time limit. Players write their words on a scratch paper pad.

This game contains

• 1 minute-timer
• 3 vowel dice
• Consonant cards
• Score pad
• Scratch paper pad
• Instruction booklet

The unique thing about the card set is that it contains consonants on cards while the dice contain vowels.

There are two ways to score points in this game:

1. Quick scoring method
   • Words with 1-4 letters are equivalent to 1 point
   • Words with 5+ letters gain 2 points
2. High stakes scoring method
   • 4 letter word- 1 point
   • 5 letter word- 2 points
   • 6 letter word- 3 points
   • 7 letter word- 4 points
   • 8 letter word- 5 points

Players get additional 5 points if they were successful in using all 3 vowels in one word.

As for variation, I suggest

• Introducing a category to make the game challenging
• Extending the time limit for vocabulary-challenged players
• Asking players to use the consonants either as starting letters or ending letters

I like the story behind the creation of this game. Carrie Chapie invented the game to help her first child who suffers from dyslexia. I think she is amazing in coming up with a good game that can help struggling parents like her.

In the end, she was able to produce a game that:

• Is a great resource for students working on phonemic awareness skills
• Is Helpful in spelling and vocabulary

Other Types of Tabletop Games

If you are interested in other tabletop games, I recommend visiting the following posts:

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Are you a word geek
looking for new word board games to play?

Or are you simply
searching for something new to amuse you and your friends on game night?

Perhaps are you a parent
seeking games for your partner and kids that are both educational and entertaining?

If so, you have landed
on the right page! In this post, we share the 9 best word board games for you and the crew. We picked these games
based on the number of positive reviews and high ratings they got from
satisfied consumers.

Instead of mindlessly
scrolling through your social media accounts and wasting valuable time, it’s
probably time to consider other hobbies like playing board games. You’ll might
be surprised how much this activity can be beneficial to your soul, mind, and body.

Without further ado, let’s check out our list of the best word board games!

1. Bananagrams

Bananagrams is an excellent choice for parents who are looking to play
word board games with their children. In addition to fun and entertainment, this anagram game promises an
educational experience for kids, especially those who are starting to learn
more complex words.

The rules are simple and
easy to understand. First, you need to distribute the tiles among all players
(maximum of eight players) facedown—21 tiles each for two to four players; 15
tiles each for five to six players; and, 11 tiles each for seven to eight
players. Start the game by saying “Split!” and everyone turns their tiles over.

The objective of this
game is to be the first person to use all their letters. You may form words
horizontally from left to right, or vertically from top to bottom. You may also
rearrange your grid any time you want. After placing your last letter in your
grid, call out “Peel!” and everyone has to take another tile from the “Bunch.”

One rule to remember is
that you can put one of your letters back, face-down in the Bunch, by saying “Dump!”
However, you have to take three more tiles in exchange for that one letter. You
may do as many “dumps” as you like.

Whoever is the first
person to use all their letters once the Bunch is empty is the winner. But he
has to shout “Bananas!” to let the others know. The competitors should then
inspect his grid to see if there are misspelled words, proper nouns, or any
other unacceptable words. If there are, then they have to shout “Rotten
Banana!” to kick the false winner out of the game.

2. Quiddler

If you are looking for a fast-paced, short-duration word board game,
then Quiddler is the answer. This
game exercises both your vocabulary and spelling skills, and is most suitable
for children six years old and above. There can be 1 to 10 players, and the one
with the highest score at the end of the game is the winner.

In this game, each
player is required to create words from the cards in their hands. You have to
be cautious, however, since the number of cards increases every round. There
are eight rounds to deal with, and you can have as many as 10 cards on the last
round. Every card has its corresponding value, so if you have the most number
of words formed with high-value cards by the end of the game, you will have the
most number of points.

This word board game
allows you to form even the simplest of words like “at,” “of,” “zoo,” and a lot
more. This is why it is recommended to kids. There are bonuses, too. For
instance, the player with the most words formed and the player who forms the
longest word get additional points. In the case of a tie, no one receives the
bonus points.

Quiddler has a high
rating on online stores, with almost a perfect store, as well as lots of
positive feedback. If you are looking for a game you can play with your
children, then we highly recommend this one.

3. Hasbro Scrabble

The game Scrabble was created
by Alfred Mosher Butts in 1938, and since then has became a popular way to
spend fun nights with friends, colleagues, and family members.

This particular version
of Scrabble is from Hasbro Gaming, which is one of the largest companies in the
world that makes toys and other means of entertainment. The goal of the game is
to form words on the board and gain points.

For every tile you use
to create a word, you have to draw a replacement from the bag. The game ends
once there are no more tiles, and the player with the most number of points
wins. To determine who has the most points, you’ll have to record your score on
each turn with pen and paper, and then add them up at the end.

Scrabble may be played
solo, with two to three players, or with a group of friends. You need a bit of
luck, as you have to draw tiles blindly, but the game also rewards those with
good strategy and extensive vocabularies.

4. Big Boggle

Big Boggle is an excellent choice for those seeking a word game with a
bit of pressure. The goal of
the game is to list as many words as you can from the randomly assorted letters
given to you at the start. However, you only have three minutes to do so, which
means you have to think and write quickly.

This board game comes with
25 standard letter cubes, one double letter cube, a cube grid with a dome, and
a three-minute sand timer. At the beginning of the game, each player takes a
pen/pencil and paper to list their words. The cube grid is then prepared by
shaking the cubes until they fall into place.

Once the timer starts,
all players should use the assorted letters and come up with words of four or
more letters. Write down every word you can think of until the time runs out.
Words must be formed from adjoining letters on the grid.

When the timer stops,
all players compare their lists of words with one another. All words that have
been played by multiple people are not scored. The remaining words are scored,
the one who earns the most points is the winner.

5. Tapple

Tapple is a fast-paced word board game that is most suitable for
families who like playing games during holidays, parties, and family
gatherings. It is also easy to
store and carry, and therefore can be packed during vacations, trips, and long
getaways.

This board game comes
with a portable Tapple wheel and 36 topic cards with 144 categories. The goal
is simple: You have to produce an answer to the category cards using only the letters
available on the wheel. Aim to be the last player left in each round to get a
score, then collect three topic cards and you win.

Tapple is a
time-pressure and elimination game. You only have 10 seconds to answer every
round, and if you fail to do so, you get kicked out for that round. If you give
an answer that does not match the category, you get eliminated. The last person
standing gains the point and is declared the winner for that round.

Remember that when you
give your answer, you have to press the first letter of the word and then reset
the timer to pass the turn. Otherwise, you are disqualified. Likewise, keep in
mind that once a letter has been used, the others can no longer press that
letter for that round.

6. Word on the Street

If you are searching for a very competitive word board game, then you
should include this one on your list. Word on the Street is a tug-of-words type of game where each team fights
for its desired letters to form high-scoring words. The first team to get the
eight letter tiles becomes the winner.

There are two teams in
this game, and they take turns “on the street,” or on the board. The letter
tiles are put in their corresponding place on the middle lane of the board
called the “Median Strip.” There are different rules with regard to turns, but
the main objective is to capture all eight letter tiles before the other team
does.

The key to winning this
game is to brainstorm with your teammates while the other team is making its
move. You all must agree on one word, and pull the letters of that word closer
to your side of the street before time runs out, and before the other team does
the same. Word on the Street is not just a vocabulary game, but also a game of
speed and strategy.

7. Pairs in Pears

Pairs in Pears is somewhat similar to Bananagrams, so if you are looking
for an alternative to the latter, then this word board game is a good fit. In this game, the goal is to make as many
pairs as possible, but they have to be matching suits.

The game comes with 104
tiles, and the number of tiles you can take depends on the number of players
there are. Similarly, the number of pairs needed to win also depends on the
number of players. There are, however, other ways to play this game, and they
are all explained in the game’s guide.

Pairs in Pears is a
racing and counting game in which you try to be the first to produce as many as
possible pairs with matching suits. It is a great way for children (and adults)
to improve their memory retention and cognitive skills, and is also a means to
develop pattern recognition and vocabulary.

8. Dabble

If you are a fast thinker and can come up with an answer in less than a
minute, then Dabble might be the word board game for you. This game tests not just your vocabulary skills,
but also your speed and agility.

The board game includes
all the letters of the Spanish and English alphabets, so it can be played in
both languages. It is appropriate for two to four players, ages 10 years old
and up, and you can even play it in teams.

The rules of the game
are simple. All players must pick 20 tiles from the bag without looking, and
then place their tiles face down. When the game starts, they all turn their
tiles and start the timer, then create five words (a two-letter word,
three-letter word, four-letter word, five-letter word, and six-letter word).
Points are recorded every round, and the first to reach 500 points is the
winner.

Other players may
challenge words if they have been misspelled or if they are not words at all.
You will need to have a dictionary on hand for challenges. Unlike Scrabble,
however, some words (e.g., foreign words, archaic words, colloquial words,
etc.) are accepted in Dabble.

9. Upwords

Upwords is a great game
if you are searching for a high-stacking, word-building game. In this game, you
don’t just think of words to form, but you also stack tiles to change words.
Your score is not based solely on the number of words you form, but also on the
level of tiles you stack—the higher you stack, the higher your score is.

Similar to Scrabble, the
game begins by each player drawing seven tiles from the bag. The first player
starts the game by placing a word on the board, and then drawing new tiles from
the bag. Every player who comes next forms a word by adding letters to the
previous tiles on the board.

Unlike Scrabble,
however, you can place your letters on top of the other letters that are
already on the board. For instance, if the word is “HAT,” you can use the
letters T, R, E, S, and S to add to the end of the word, and then cover H with
M to form the word “MATTRESS.”

There are a few other rules
to consider in this game that are not in Scrabble. One example is the points
system, as Upwords’ letter tiles all have one point each. There are also no
double or triple letter word scores for additional points.

If you are looking for a
Scrabble-like game with a bit of a twist, you might want to consider checking
out this game.

Final Thoughts on Word and Vocabulary Board Games

We highly recommend
these word board games for those who are looking for a bit of fun and a great
way to help their children learn. After all, these types of games have shown to
be beneficial for a person’s brain development and cognitive skills. And while
your children are learning and having fun, you get to be a part of their
experience.

We also suggest these
games for those who have gotten tired of playing the usual mystery, roleplaying, and deck-building board games. You might want to try changing the flavor of
your game night and see how well you do in other types of board games.

Whatever your reason is
for checking out this post, we hope that we were able to help you find a game
that suits your tastes.

Have you already tried
playing one or more of these board games?

Let us know which one by
sharing your story in the comment fields below. We’d love to hear about your
experience!

Mahjong

Learn how to play different Mahjong games.

Dominoes

How to play games from the Domino family.

Rummikub

Rules for the popular family game Rummikub.

Scrabble

Strategy and rules for classic Scrabble.

Rules for Tile-based Games

Tile games are a wide variety of different game types, named after their main medium of play. Tile-based games use rectangular pieces as the main gameplay element, and depending on the game-type, can be a single or multiplayer experience designed for teamwork or puzzling. Popular tile-based classics are Dominoes, Mahjong, and many more exotic options. All these games use tiles of a certain variety.

Japanese

Japanese Mahjong, also known as Riichi Mahjong, is the most recognizable of Japanese tile games, being as popular as the classic Go among adults in Japan. Riichi Mahjong has a reputation of being the most complex form of Mahjong, and for good reason. Unlike its Chinese counterpart, Riichi Mahjong delivers a more complex experience, where every action carries consequence. One badly-thought-out discard early on in the game may result in you forfeiting your win completely. A full rules guide can be found in our Japanese Mahjong guide.

Chinese

The undisputed king of Chinese tile games is Mahjong. Mahjong tiles are almost as recognizable as poker cards, and for good reason. The classic 4-player game has managed to find a place in cultures both western and eastern. The classic version is a game about deceit, where you slowly build up a hand of winning tiles, stealing tiles from your opponents when needed. Different regions add different rules to keep the game interesting. A more complete explanation on how to play Chinese Mahjong can be found in our Classic Mahjong guide.

Tile Puzzle Games

Tile puzzle games tend to be single-player affairs, though certain manage to add in a multiplayer element. These games force a player to find patterns or possible matches, and to make decisions regarding what steps to take. One can consider these games similar to Solitaire, where there is a solution behind a layer of problem solving. Popular tile puzzle games are Shisen-Sho, 15 puzzle, and Tangram dissection puzzles.

Tile Matching Games

Match tile games are a popular game, especially in video-game form. One of the most popular examples is Mahjong Solitaire, where Mahjong pieces are arranged in elaborate patterns, and the player is required to remove matching tiles, pair-by-pair, to clear the board. Simple rules are often enforced to prevent overly easy gameplay, such as preventing certain tiles from being cleared unless certain conditions are achieved.

Word Tile Games

The classic word tile game is Scrabble, where tile include letters. The goal of the game is to use the letters to form words on the board, with certain hard-to-use letters being worth more. The board also includes certain point modifiers, which introduces a layer of strategy. Arguably one of the most popular tile-based classics out there, Scrabble is an international sport, gaining traction due to its unique blend of chance and strategy. Other popular games include Anagrams, Take-Two, Bananagrams, and UpWords.

Number Games

Number tile games are unique to dominoes, and involve the use of tiles with numbers on them. The most prominent is the classic Rummikub, which incorporates elements from Rummy and Mahjong. Each player plays tiles that sum up to a certain point total, and repeat until tiles are depleted. These games test board-awareness to the limit, requiring players to always be aware of the possibilities and resultant sums. Other variations on the formula include games based on dominoes, like for example Triominos.

Tile Laying Games

Tile Laying games are simple, enjoyable experiences that can be
experienced individually or as a group. One of the most popular games of this type is Carcassonne, where players layout the map using tiles with pictures of landscapes. Simple rules with tough decisions have made this game popular with families everywhere.

Hexagon Games

Hexagonal tiles are rare, but they do exist. Hex tiles allow for more elaborate tile configurations, and are seen in games such as Six, Hive, Tantrix, and Hellas. These games range from puzzlers to strategy, and use the special matching characteristics of hexagonal tiles to allow for more intricate board states.

Memory Games

Memory tile games will be familiar to anyone with childhood experience. Memory games involve tiles placed face down, each tile having 2 duplicates. The goal of the game is to successfully unveil all tiles, pair by pair. If the two tiles flipped over are not a match, they are both turned face down for a repeat process. These games are commonly played in video game form, with most being aimed at kids. However, more complex versions are used for adult in memory training as well.

Board Games

Tile board games are an umbrella term covering board games that involve the use of tiles. The novelty and durability of tiles make it an excellent choice for family board games for the weekends. The most popular board games ship in boxed-form, though certain games use the readily available Mahjong and Domino tiles for ease of access. Popular games include Qwirkle, Tsuro, and Alhambra.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most
versatile tile-based games?

Dominoes and Mahjong are probably the most versatile, with the former being cheaply available at stores in every town. The latter, with its heavier tiles, might carry a heavier price tag. However, both unlock a world of possibilities.

What are tiles made of?

Depending on the tile game in question, tiles can be made of natural or synthetic materials. Classic Domino tiles and Mahjong tiles are made out of wood/bone or ceramics respectively. However, modern tile-based games use a form of durable synthetic plastics for long lifetimes.

How many players do I need to play?

Depending on the game rules, player counts can range from 1-4, sometimes involving teams of 2. Mahjong involves 4 players with no teams, and competitive domino variants can involve 4 players in teams of 2.

Are there ways to play tile games online?

You can play nearly every well known tile games online using simulators. Mahjong is extremely popular online, even allowing you to challenge real people for high stakes. However, certain more proprietary games may only be accessible in physical form.

What are the keys to winning?

Most tile games, whether puzzle or competitive-based, involve a
degree of strategy. In puzzles, sometimes a wrong move can result in an unsolvable board; and similarly in the stricter competitive games, a wrong decision can cost you the round. If there is no turn timer, think out your moves to the best of your ability, ensuring that it is the best decision.