- How many rack letters can I enter?
- Up to 10. A Scrabble rack has 7 tiles, but the finder allows up to 10 so you can include up to three tiles already on the board you'd play through (a hook letter or two). Past 10 the input clears and shows a polite error — anything more is rarely useful and slows the search.
- What does the "?" mean?
- A blank tile. Type "st?p" and the finder treats the "?" as a wildcard, returning words like "stop", "step", and "stap" if they're in the dictionary. The Scrabble bag has two blanks, so the finder allows a maximum of two "?" characters per query. A played blank scores zero — the score shown for the word does not count the blank's letter value.
- Which dictionary does it use?
- About 50,000 common English words derived from Webster's Second International Dictionary (1934, public domain). Honest about the gaps: no obscure tournament words (no QI, QAT, ZA, ZE), no slang, no proper nouns, no foreign loanwords. If you play tournament Scrabble against the TWL or SOWPODS word lists, this finder won't agree with your judge. For casual play, crossword help, and word-game puzzles it works well.
- Are the Scrabble scores correct?
- Yes — they use the standard English Scrabble letter values: A=1, B=3, C=3, D=2, E=1, F=4, G=2, H=4, I=1, J=8, K=5, L=1, M=3, N=1, O=1, P=3, Q=10, R=1, S=1, T=1, U=1, V=4, W=4, X=8, Y=4, Z=10. Blank = 0. The number next to each word is the raw letter total. Board bonuses (double-letter, triple-letter, double-word, triple-word) are not included because the finder doesn't see your board.
- Is the top-scoring word always the best play?
- No. The board changes everything. A 5-point word hitting a triple-word square beats a 22-point word played on plain tiles. Treat the top word as a candidate, then check the board for bonuses, defensive value, and what you leave on your next rack.
- Why doesn't my favorite word appear?
- Three usual reasons: (1) the dictionary doesn't include it — common for slang, brand names, proper nouns, and many short tournament words like QI or ZA; (2) you don't have the letters — every letter in the result has to come from your rack or a blank; (3) a filter is cutting it — check starts-with, ends-with, contains, and your length range. If it's a real English word and none of those apply, it's a dictionary gap and not a bug.
- How is this different from your Anagram Solver?
- Same dictionary, same scoring engine, different framing. The Anagram Solver is built for finding every word from a rack — useful for word jumbles, daily puzzles, and quick rack scans. The Scrabble Word Finder surfaces the filters (starts-with, ends-with, contains, length range) as primary inputs because Scrabble players usually know something about the board before they pick a play. Pick whichever matches the question you're asking.
- Does the finder send my rack anywhere?
- No. The dictionary ships in your browser and the search runs entirely on your device. We don't see your rack, your filters, or your results. Close the tab and it's gone.
