How to play
- The bag. The bag holds 105 wooden tiles: 103 letters and 2 blanks. Each player draws seven. The seed decides who starts; then play goes round the table.
- Lay a word. Put one or more tiles from your rack in one row or one column, with no empty square between them (tiles already on the paper may fill a gap). They make one word along that line, and they must touch the tiles on the paper. The first word covers the centre square, the one with the compass rose, and has two letters or more.
- Every word counts. Your word and every word it makes across it must be in the word list. If one is not, the table names it and your tiles stay yours: change them and try again. There is no penalty.
- Blanks. A blank is any letter you choose when you put it down. It keeps that letter and scores 0.
- Points. Add up the letter values to score a word. A new tile that lands on a letter stamp (2× or 3× letter) is worth double or triple. A new tile that lands on a word stamp (2× or 3× word) doubles or triples the whole word, and a word that spans two word stamps gets both, so 2× and 3× together make 6×. A stamp works only on the turn its square is first covered; later words that use that tile ignore it. Every crossing word is scored by these same steps. Playing all seven tiles of your rack in one turn adds 50.
- Draw. After a play, draw from the bag back to seven tiles (or as many as are left).
- Exchange or pass. Instead of a play you may put 1 to 7 tiles back and draw as many (only while the bag holds 7 or more), or pass. Both score 0.
- The end. The game stops in one of two ways. First: the bag is empty and someone puts down their final tile. That player collects the total of all tiles still on the other racks, and each other player pays the total of their own rack. Second: every player passes twice in a row (an exchange does not count as a pass). Then every player pays the total of their own rack. The top score wins. If scores are equal, the player with the higher score before the rack totals are taken wins. If those are equal too, the players share the place.
Letter values
Each tile shows its points; under it, how many of that tile are in the bag.
At the online table
- Tap a tile on your rack to lift it, then tap a square to put it there; tap it again to take it back. You can also drag tiles. On a phone, the first tap on the paper brings the board closer; “Fit” shows all of it again.
- The Play button shows the points your tiles will score. The word list is checked when you play.
- On a keyboard: choose a square with the arrow keys, Space turns the direction (across or down), type the letters, ? and a letter for a blank, Backspace takes a tile back, Enter plays. Outside the board, H shuffles your rack, S passes, Space plays, ? lists the keys and M turns the sound off.
- Each turn has a 2-minute timer. If it runs out, the table plays the best-scoring word for you, or passes.
- An empty seat is taken by a bot, always marked as a bot.
Why it is fair
A secret seed shuffles the bag before the game. You see its fingerprint when the game starts and the seed itself when it ends, so you can check every tile that was drawn. The word list is the public-domain ENABLE list. Verify a game.
Playing online for the first time?
Our guide compares the ways to play online, with steps for each. Read the guide to playing online.