How Do I Play Scrabble?

(Official Rules and Tips to Score Big)

Things You Should Know
 If you place the first word in Scrabble, then you receive a Double Word Bonus for the word you played.
For example, you'll earn 20 points for a 10-point word.
 When it's your turn to make a move, build off of another person's word for your word to be valid. For
instance, use the "n" in "friend" to spell "pension."
 Make sure that when you spell out words, you place letters in a horizontal row or a vertical column
rather than in a diagonal line, which is not allowed.
 At the end of your turn, draw new tiles to replace any tiles you used to spell out a word. Keep 7 tiles in
your rack for each play unless you can't draw any more.
1
Set up the Scrabble board, letter racks, and letter tiles. Lay out the board, put all 100 letter tiles in
the cloth bag that's included with the game, and put out 1 letter rack per player. Make sure each letter
rack is placed in front of 1 of the 4 sides on the board. [1]
 Give everyone a piece of paper and a pencil, too. That way, they can keep track of all their
points.
 If your crew wants to be extra fancy, each player can bring their very own Scrabble score
notebook.
2
Agree on a dictionary to use for challenges.At some point during the game, it’s possible that
someone might play a word that another player thinks is invalid. In this kind of situation, you’ll need to
look up the word in a dictionary. Make sure everyone is on the same page about the dictionary you’ll
use, then refer to it whenever challenges come up. Or, use the official “Word Checker for
Scrabble®” app instead. Words that are always off limits include:[2]
 Proper nouns—nouns that are always capitalized—like names and places.
 Abbreviations, like “CIA,” “FBI,” or “USA.”
 Prefixes or suffixes by themselves, like “anti-” or “-ful.”
 Hyphenated words, like “short-term” or “old-fashioned.”
 Any other incomplete and unofficial English word, like “ridic” (for “ridiculous”).
3
Put all 100 tiles in the bag and shake it.To make sure you randomize all the letters so no one
knows what they’re pulling, fill the bag with all the tiles, use the drawstring to close it, and shake them
around. Whoever goes first is based on the tile they pull, which is left up entirely to chance.
4
Pull a tile to decide who plays first.Pass the bag around the table and let each player draw 1 tile.
Next, each person places their tile face up on the table. The player with the letter that is closest to the
letter “A” makes the first Scrabble play. If anyone draws a blank tile, they automatically start the
game.[3]
 After sorting out the order everyone will go in, put all the letter tiles back in the bag and
shuffle them again.
5
Fill your rack with 7 tiles.Let the person who drew the tile closest to “A” go first. Hold the bag
above eye level so they can’t see any of the tiles. Once everyone else takes out 7 tiles, make sure
they put them onto their tile rack. Then, have them pass the bag to the next player until everyone has
drawn their letters and filled their tile racks.[4]
 Do not show your tiles to your fellow players. Part of the fun in playing Scrabble is all the fun
surprises when you see what someone else spells out (or when you dazzle everyone with an epic
word choice).
OBJECTIVE
The goal of Scrabble is to earn the highest score by the end of the game. You earn
points by spelling words with letter tiles. There all sorts of strategies you can use—for example, you
can spell words with high value letters like "Q" and "Z" (both of which are worth 10 points each), or
you can earn an enormous amount of points by placing letter tiles on big-ticket "Premium Squares,"
like Triple Letter Bonuses or even Triple Word Bonuses. If you love creativity and showing off your
vocabulary, then this is definitely the board game for you. [5]
 Scrabble is finished once all the players have used all their tiles, all the tiles in the bag have
already been drawn, or there are no longer any words that can be played.

GAMEPLAY
1
Play the first word if you chose the tile closest to “A.”The word must use at least 2 tiles,
and 1 of them must be placed on the star square in the center of the board. The word can be laid out
vertically (from top to bottom) or horizontally (from left to right), but it can’t go diagonally across the
Scrabble board.[6]
 Keep track of the points for each play! More on that in the Scoring section.
 The star counts as a “Premium Square,” and it doubles the score of the player who places their
first word. For example, if the total value of the first word played was 10, then the player
actually doubles that and collects 20 points.
2
Draw new tiles at the end of each round.After you’re done with your turn, grab new tiles to replace
any that you just played. For example, if you played 3 of your tiles to form a word during your turn,
pull out 3 new tiles from the bag at the end of your turn. Place these new tiles on your rack. [7]
 Pass the bag to the next player so they can draw new tiles at the end of their turn, too.
 Make sure that everyone has 7 tiles again by the end of their turn unless there aren't enough
tiles left in the bag to make this possible.
3
Go clockwise to give the next player their turn. Once the first player has made their move
and ended their turn, the person to the left of this individual follows suit. When this player finishes up
with their turn, then the person to the left of them makes their play, and so on.
4.
Build off another player’s word when it’s your turn. When it’s your turn again, make sure to
keep adding onto the words that other opponents have just played. Just like the case is for every
round, you aren’t able to create a “freestanding” word on the board that doesn’t work off of someone
else’s word. For a word to be valid, all tiles must be connected on the board. [9]
 Make sure to consider all the connected tiles. If you add tiles to someone else’s word on the
board, the tiles must create 1 new word. However, if your tiles touch other tiles somewhere else
on the board, these connections need to also make valid words for your play to count.
 For example, build the word “noisy” by using the "n" in another player’s word, “pension,” to
connect all of the words.
5
Challenge a player if you think their word is invalid.Whenever you genuinely believe that a
player has placed down a word that doesn’t exist or is misspelled, challenge that player. Look up the
word in the dictionary everyone’s chosen and check whether it’s valid or invalid. [10]
 Just be careful—if the word is in the dictionary and the player has spelled it correctly, then the
word stays and the player gets the points. As the challenger, you’ll lose your turn.
 If the word is not in the dictionary or the player has spelled it incorrectly, then the player must
remove the word from the board. The player gains no points and loses that turn.
6
Exchange tiles if you want different ones.At some point during the game, you might decide that
you want to exchange some or all of your tiles for new ones. You can use a turn to get new tiles. Just
discard the tiles that you no longer want into the bag, shuffle the bag and draw the number of tiles
that you got rid of.[11]
  Just keep in mind that you can’t play a word in addition to drawing new tiles, so this move
counts as your turn.
 There's also a chance that you might draw some of the letter tiles you were trying to get rid of,
especially if the number of tiles in the bag is running low.
7
"Pass" if you'd prefer to neither place a word nor exchange tiles.Sometimes, you might
feel like you've run out of options for that turn. You may also think your current tiles might pay off on
another round, so you don't want to exchange them for new ones. If that's the case, just ask to "pass"
and let the next player make their move.[12]
 Keep in mind that the game ends if all players choose to "pass" for two consecutive turns in a
row.
Scoring
1
Keep track of your points after each play.Once you put down a word, make sure to take out
your paper (or notebook) and a pencil. Look down at the lower right-hand corner of each of the tiles
you laid down—you’ll find the points they’ll each give you. If you placed a tile on a Premium Square,
then adjust your score based on the bonus it gives you. Write down the total points you earned for the
turn.[13]
 0 Points: A blank tile.
 1 Point: A, E, I, L, N, O, R, S, T and U.
 2 Points: D and G.
 3 Points: B, C, M and P.
 4 Points: F, H, V, W and Y.
 5 Points: K.
 8 Points: J and X.
 10 Points: Q and Z.
2
Collect points from Premium Squares when you place tiles on them. You only earn a
bonus from a Premium Square during the turn that you laid a tile over it. You won’t be able to take
advantage of a bonus from a Premium Square that you used in a previous turn or that was already
counted by another player.[14]
 Double Letter Score: A letter placed on this square is double (x2) the number of points shown
on the letter tile.
 Double Word Score: A word that is made up of a letter placed on this Premium Square receives
double (x2) the number of points than it otherwise would.
 Triple Letter Score: A letter placed on this square is triple (x3) the number of points shown on
the letter tile.
 Triple Word Score: A word that is made up of a letter placed on this Premium Score receives
triple (x3) the number of points than it otherwise would.
 When tallying the bonuses for plays with multiple Premium Squares, use an order of operations
—add the letter bonuses before the word bonuses.[15]
 Example: If you lay down 5 letter tiles to spell the word "aroma," and "m" is on
a Triple Letter Bonus, while the entire word is on a Double Word Bonus, first
calculate the bonus for the letter (3x2=6), factor it in when getting the score for
the total word (1+1+1+6+1=10), then use the Triple Word Score to trip that
sum (10x3=30) to arrive at your final score (30) for that turn.
3
Get a 50-point bonus if you use all 7 tiles in 1 turn.This incredible move and amazing
bonus is also known as a “Bingo.” If you manage to lay down all 7 tiles from your rack and play a
word, tally up the total value of your word plus any bonuses earned from Premium Squares, then add
50 points on top of that—lucky you![16]
  Example: If you lay down all 7 tiles to play the word “detainer," and both "e" and "n" are on
Triple Letter Bonus Squares, factor in the bonuses for "e" (1x3=3) and "n" (1x3=3), total up the
score whole word (1+3+1+1+1+3+1+1=12), then add your 50-point "Bingo" (12+50=62) to
receive your final score for that turn (62).
4
Calculate each player’s score at the end of the game.As the scorekeeper tallies everyone’s
points, each player announces the points value (if any) of the tiles left over in their rack. Deduct this
value from each player’s points total to find out each player’s final score. [17]
 If a player tallied up 100 points, but they have 2 tiles left in their rack which have a combined
points total of 9, then they’ll end the game with 91 points (100-9=91).
 If a super fortunate player ends the game with 0 tiles in their rack, then they get the sum of all
other players’ unplayed tiles added to their score.
 If there were 3 other players, and they each had 5 points left in their racks, then
the player with 0 tiles gets to add 15 points (5+5+5) to their total score.
 If there’s a tie, then the player with the highest score before any deductions wins.
 If Player A and Player B are tied with points, but Player A had 119 points
before deducting 1 point and Player B had 120 points before deducting 2 points,
then Player B wins.
5
Announce the winner.After the scorekeeper has added each player’s scores and deducted the
values of any unused tiles, it’s time for them to congratulate the victor. The person who has the
highest score wins the game; second place goes to the person with the second highest score, and so
on. Give everyone props for being so creative and putting in their best effort.

Tips on Playing Professionally

If you plan to become a pro Scrabble player, train like an expert.It's completely
achievable to make it to the top and even win cash prizes by playing Scrabble competitively in official
tournaments. The more you invest time and effort in leveling up your gameplay, the more likely you'll
gain mastery of this popular board game. To get closer to an epic victory, take these helpful steps: [19]
 Play using the official Scrabble dictionary and enforce invalid words.
 Practice against Scrabble pros at the Internet Scrabble Club.
 Read the Official Tournament Handbook to learn championship etiquette.
 Join an official Scrabble association, like NASPA or WESPA.
 Study word lists religiously with a program like "Zyzzyva."
 Memorize words that use high value letter tiles, like "quixotic" or "jazzy."
 Tile-track by keeping in mind the exact tile distribution of all 100 tiles.