defense needs no unscrambling at all — the seven-letter word is already the strongest play its own letters allow, banking 11 points in Scrabble as it stands. In all, 43 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
defense is the highest-scoring word from defense, worth 11 points in Scrabble. The top 10 of 43 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
Only one seven-letter word uses the letters in defense — and it is defense itself. No unscrambling is needed: the word is already playable as written, worth 11 points in Scrabble.
There are 5 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in defense. If a familiar word is all you need, start with feeds and needs. For points, the strongest plays are feeds and fends — 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 defense produces 16 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ends, feed, fees, need, seed, seen, and send. For points, the strongest plays are feds, feed, and fend — 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 defense turns up 14 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with end, fed, fee, and see. For points, the strongest plays are def and fed — 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 7 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in defense. No common everyday answer stands out among these two-letter results, so let the score decide: the highest-scoring words are ef and fe, each worth 5 points in Scrabble.
The full list follows, sorted A to Z; every score reflects tile constraints and skips board bonuses.
Swap a single tile in defense and you get a different seven-letter rack with its own word list. None of these appear in the results above — they share 6 of the 7 letters, not all of them.
defense is in the NWL, the official Scrabble word list for North America, and in the Words With Friends dictionary, so it's playable exactly as it stands and needs no unscrambling.
The 1-point gap between the two totals comes from the tile values themselves: Scrabble and Words With Friends price the same letters differently.
Dictionaries record twelve senses for defense. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 11 points on a Scrabble board:
defense is the only seven-letter word the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing defense unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring play from these letters is defense, worth 11 points in Scrabble, and no other word from defense 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 defense produce 43 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 1 seven-letter word, 5 five-letter words, 16 four-letter words, 14 three-letter words and 7 two-letter words.