While it's true that a good average score in Scrabble should be around 300 to 350 points, it's only a starting point. Ace players and beginners alike routinely score more and fewer points than that.
A well-contested Scrabble game should end with around 600 to 700 total points. So, the average Scrabble score to beat is about 350 for a 2-player game, 230 for a 3-player game, and 175 for a 4-player game. If you can regularly score higher than that, you can legitimately claim the coveted title of "Good at Scrabble."
In a typical living-room family game, you might expect to see scores of 200-250. In American tournament play, you'll rarely see a game won with a score under 300, unless it's a very defensive game with a closed-down board. 350 is average, 400 is good.
The highest scoring 7-letter bingo is "MUZJIKS".
The letter 'X' provides the highest scoring two-letter words, with at least 9 points awarded for the Greek letter names 'Ax', 'Ex', 'Ox', 'Xi' and the Vietnamese coin 'Xu'; whilst with 'Zax' (a hatchet-like tool) attaining a minimum of 19 points, it also gives you the highest scoring three-letter word.
The values of the letters in Scrabble were assigned according to the front page of a US newspaper in the 1930s. Is it time the scoring system was updated to reflect today's usage? All Scrabble players know that Q and Z are the highest scoring tiles.
A Great Brain Workout
Of course, Scrabble is a word game first and foremost. Playing Scrabble will expand your vocabulary and improve your literacy skills. That's a given. But Scrabble also tests your memory as you learn more words in the dictionary and recall them in-game.
Rod Nivison (USA) won a game at the July 1990 Midwest Invitational in the USA by a score of –8 to –10. This bizarre result was achieved after he and his opponent repeatedly passed turns or changed tiles, and the only word to be placed on the board (DORMINE) was challenged off!
Scrabble is a game of both luck and skill. According to John William, former director of the National Scrabble Association, community consensus is that Scrabble involves about 15% luck and 85% skills.
About the Word:
Although it's most commonly spelled CHI in standard usage, the variant form QI is the single most-played word in SCRABBLE tournaments, according to game records of the North American SCRABBLE Players Association (NASPA).
There is an adage in Scrabble that says “the player going first will win 54% of the time - all other things being equal”. Going first allows you to control the board - you determine whether your move will be horizontal or vertical , expose a premium square or a double word file, close or open the board.
The Important Answer About IQ
No. To make it clear right now, IQ is not a valid word in Scrabble. This is according to the official Scrabble dictionary, even though IQ is a legitimate word in the dictionary. That's because, generally speaking, you cannot use abbreviations in Scrabble.
4 blank tiles (scoring 0 points) 1 point: E ×24, A ×16, O ×15, T ×15, I ×13, N ×13, R ×13, S ×10, L ×7, U ×7. 2 points: D ×8, G ×5. 3 points: C ×6, M ×6, B ×4, P ×4.
MUZJIKS is the highest-scoring opening word in Scrabble. With its tiles value at 29 points, it can score a total of 128 points on the first move.
The minimum score for a seven letter word if you can place the word anywhere is 55. e.g. The score is 5 for RETNA, 0 for the blanks, and 50 bonus for using all 7 letters. The word would lie on a TL square, but since this is covered by a blank, it gives no bonus since 3x0 = 0.
You might be aware that in Scrabble, if you manage to use all seven of your tiles in one play, it earns you a bonus of 50 points. That's called a "bingo," in Scrabble lingo.
In a study recently published in Applied Cognitive Psychology, Michael Toma and his colleagues found that elite SCRABBLE players outperformed college students from a highly selective university on tests of two cognitive abilities: working memory and visuospatial reasoning.
Not only is playing Scrabble lots of fun but there has also been research carried out to show that it lowers the risk of mental illness by keeping the brain stimulated and engaged, makes you happy, reduced blood pressure, improves the immune system and improves memory.
There are many board games that encourage quick thinking, word forming and get those cognitive skills going. Games such as Articulate (word describing), Balderdash (improving reading ability) and Scrabble (a favourite among early readers) help the child to practice their reading skills in a fun, stress-free way.
JEEZ: Jeez, meaning a mild expression to show surprise, scores a whopping 20 points for Scrabble. FUZZY: Fuzzy is a high-scoring five letter word, coming in at 25 points. WHIZZ: Commonly spelled with one z, whiz is accepted with two z's in Scrabble, scoring 28 points. Without the extra z, it is only worth 18 points.
What are the highest-scoring nine-letter words in Scrabble? The highest-scoring words in Scrabble are those that include valuable letters like Z, X, J and Q. QUIZZICAL has a whopping 41-point value. JAZZINESS will earn a player 37 points.
Yeet is a slang word that functions broadly with the meaning “to throw,” but is especially used to emphasize forcefulness and a lack of concern for the thing being thrown.
Believe it or not, you can play these words in an official Scrabble game. If you've ever wanted to play "OK," "ew," "twerk," or "emoji" in Scrabble, you're in luck.