Hidden inside asterisk sit asterisk and sarkiest, eight-letter plays tied at the top of this rack with 12 points in Scrabble apiece. In all, 309 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
There are 2 eight-letter words hiding in asterisk: one comes from rearranging its letters, and asterisk itself is already a playable word with no unscrambling required. No common everyday answer stands out among these eight-letter results, so let the score decide: the highest-scoring words are asterisk and sarkiest, each worth 12 points in Scrabble.
The full list follows, sorted A to Z; every score reflects tile constraints and skips board bonuses.
Rearranging the letters in asterisk produces 8 valid seven-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with strikes. For points, the strongest plays are kaisers, skaters, stakers, strakes, streaks, and strikes — each worth 11 points in Scrabble.
Below, the list runs in alphabetical order, with each score based on the playable tile set — premium squares not included.
Unscrambling asterisk turns up 46 six-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with kisser, raises, resist, sister, skates, skirts, and stairs. For points, the strongest plays are askers, eskars, kaiser, karsts, kisser, kiters, kraits, krises, sakers, saktis, skater, skates, skiers, skirts, skites, skries, staker, stakes, steaks, stirks, strake, streak, strike, takers, traiks, and trikes — each worth 10 points in Scrabble.
The words below are listed alphabetically. Scores count playable tiles only and leave out premium-square bonuses.
There are 90 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in asterisk. If a familiar word is all you need, start with kites, raise, rates, rests, rises, risks, and sakes. For points, the strongest plays are asker, eskar, ikats, karst, karts, keirs, ketas, kiers, kists, kiter, kites, krais, krait, rakes, rakis, risks, saker, sakes, sakis, sakti, sarks, sikas, siker, sikes, skate, skats, skier, skies, skirt, skite, skits, stake, stark, steak, stirk, taker, takes, tasks, teaks, tikes, traik, treks, and trike — each worth 9 points in Scrabble.
The full list follows, sorted A to Z; every score reflects tile constraints and skips board bonuses.
Rearranging the letters in asterisk produces 91 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with airs, arts, asks, ears, east, eats, and eras. For points, the strongest plays are arks, asks, ikat, irks, kaes, kart, kats, keas, keir, keta, kier, kirs, kiss, kist, kite, kits, krai, kris, rake, raki, risk, sake, saki, sark, sika, sike, skas, skat, skis, skit, take, task, teak, tike, trek, and tsks — each worth 8 points in Scrabble.
Below, the list runs in alphabetical order, with each score based on the playable tile set — premium squares not included.
Unscrambling asterisk turns up 55 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with air, are, art, ask, ass, ate, and ear. For points, the strongest plays are ark, ask, irk, kae, kas, kat, kea, kir, kis, kit, ska, ski, and tsk — each worth 7 points in Scrabble.
The words below are listed alphabetically. Scores count playable tiles only and leave out premium-square bonuses.
There are 17 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in asterisk. If a familiar word is all you need, start with as, at, is, and it. For points, the strongest plays are ka and ki — each worth 6 points in Scrabble.
The full list follows, sorted A to Z; every score reflects tile constraints and skips board bonuses.
asterisk appears in the word lists that Scrabble and Words With Friends validate against, so the rack is playable exactly as it stands and needs no unscrambling.
Both totals match, because every tile in asterisk carries the same value on a Scrabble board and on a Words With Friends board.
Dictionaries record two senses for asterisk. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 12 points on a Scrabble board:
asterisk is one of two eight-letter words the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing asterisk unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring plays from these letters are asterisk and sarkiest, worth 12 points in Scrabble, and nothing else built from asterisk earns more points in Scrabble. Words With Friends prices the same letters differently, so the top of the list changes on a Words With Friends board. Both scores count tile values only and exclude premium squares.
The letters in asterisk produce 309 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 2 eight-letter words, 8 seven-letter words, 46 six-letter words, 90 five-letter words, 91 four-letter words, 55 three-letter words and 17 two-letter words.
The anagram solver inside UnscrambleX compares asterisk against the dictionaries used by Scrabble, Words With Friends, Word Jumble, and Text Twist, keeps every arrangement those dictionaries contain, and sorts the confirmed words by tile score. That sorting step is why asterisk and sarkiest appear at the top of the results. A word on this page is a legal play in Scrabble and Words With Friends, not a letter combination that only looks like a word.
Unscrambling asterisk produces two kinds of plays in Scrabble and Words With Friends: one high-scoring word, and one short word that fits a crowded board.
The high-scoring play is asterisk. The short plays are ae and ai, and they cover the turns when the board leaves no open line long enough for the bigger word.
The score gap is exact: the lowest-scoring word from these letters earns 2 points in Scrabble and the highest-scoring word earns 12 points. The letters are identical in both cases, so the board decides the value of the turn.
UnscrambleX lists every word from these letters with its Scrabble score and its Words With Friends score, so the choice between points and board position is made from numbers instead of memory.
The results list works as a vocabulary drill for Scrabble and Words With Friends players. Cover the list, rearrange asterisk in your head, and count how many of the 309 words you find before you check the answers.
Experienced players find the long words such as asterisk and sarkiest without help. The short words are the ones that go unnoticed, and short words decide close games in Scrabble, Words With Friends, and Text Twist.
Repeat the drill on a few letter sets each day. Vowel positions, common endings such as -ed and -ing, and high-value tiles become recognisable without an unscrambler.
Unscrambling adds words that reading never supplies. No Scrabble player opens a dictionary to look for ae, and the word enters a playable vocabulary only because a results list produced it.
Spelling accuracy improves at the same time. Building asterisk from loose tiles forces one letter order and returns a correct or incorrect verdict inside the same move, which is faster feedback than a spelling test. Plays from asterisk range from 2 to 12 points in Scrabble, so every turn also asks a scoring question: take the points now, or keep the flexible tiles for the next turn.
Words assembled from tiles are remembered better than words only read, and timed games such as Text Twist and Word Jumble reward that recall directly.