hesitates needs no unscrambling at all — the nine-letter word is already the strongest play its own letters allow, banking 12 points in Scrabble as it stands. In all, 202 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
hesitates is the highest-scoring word from hesitates, worth 12 points in Scrabble. The top 10 of 202 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
Only one nine-letter word uses the letters in hesitates — and it is hesitates itself. No unscrambling is needed: the word is already playable as written, worth 12 points in Scrabble.
There are 5 eight-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in hesitates. If a familiar word is all you need, start with atheists. For points, 5 words tie at 11 points, including atheists, esthesia and hastiest.
Rearranging the letters in hesitates produces 7 valid seven-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with atheist, easiest, and estates. For points, 5 words tie at 10 points, including atheist, ashiest and hessite.
Unscrambling hesitates turns up 24 six-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with estate, sheets and shiest. For points, 11 words tie at 9 points, including sheets, shiest and hastes.
There are 43 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in hesitates. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ashes, eases and hates. For points, 21 words tie at 8 points, including ashes, hates and heats.
Rearranging the letters in hesitates produces 60 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ease, east and eats. For points, 27 words tie at 7 points, including hate, hats and heat.
Unscrambling hesitates turns up 44 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ash, ass and ate. For points, 15 words tie at 6 points, including ash, has and hat.
There are 18 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in hesitates. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ah, as and at. For points, 6 words tie at 5 points, including ah, eh and ha.
5 ten-letter words can be made using all the letters in hesitates plus one additional letter.
Swap a single tile in hesitates and you get a different nine-letter rack with its own word list. None of these appear in the results above — they share 8 of the 9 letters, not all of them.
hesitates 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 two senses for hesitates. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 12 points on a Scrabble board:
hesitates is the only nine-letter word the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing hesitates unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring play from these letters is hesitates, worth 12 points in Scrabble, and no other word from hesitates 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 hesitates produce 202 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 1 nine-letter word, 5 eight-letter words, 7 seven-letter words, 24 six-letter words, 43 five-letter words, 60 four-letter words, 44 three-letter words and 18 two-letter words.