formerly needs no unscrambling at all — the eight-letter word is already the strongest play its own letters allow, banking 16 points in Scrabble as it stands. In all, 86 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
formerly is the highest-scoring word from formerly, worth 16 points in Scrabble. The top 10 of 86 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
Only one eight-letter word uses the letters in formerly — and it is formerly itself. No unscrambling is needed: the word is already playable as written, worth 16 points in Scrabble.
There are 14 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in formerly. If a familiar word is all you need, start with flyer and merry. For points, 8 words tie at 11 points, including flyer, ferly and ferry.
Rearranging the letters in formerly produces 22 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with form, from and mole. For points, the strongest play is fley — worth 10 points in Scrabble.
Unscrambling formerly turns up 28 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with elf, fly, for, and fry. For points, the strongest plays are fey, fly, foy, and fry — each worth 9 points in Scrabble.
There are 17 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in formerly. If a familiar word is all you need, start with me, my and of. For points, the strongest play is my — worth 7 points in Scrabble.
Swap a single tile in formerly and you get a different eight-letter rack with its own word list. None of these appear in the results above — they share 7 of the 8 letters, not all of them.
formerly 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 one sense for formerly. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 16 points on a Scrabble board:
formerly is the only eight-letter word the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing formerly unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring play from these letters is formerly, worth 16 points in Scrabble, and no other word from formerly 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 formerly produce 86 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 1 eight-letter word, 4 six-letter words, 14 five-letter words, 22 four-letter words, 28 three-letter words and 17 two-letter words.