hostages needs no unscrambling at all — the eight-letter word is already the strongest play its own letters allow, banking 12 points in Scrabble as it stands. In all, 227 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
hostages is the highest-scoring word from hostages, worth 12 points in Scrabble. The top 10 of 227 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
Only one eight-letter word uses the letters in hostages — and it is hostages itself. No unscrambling is needed: the word is already playable as written, worth 12 points in Scrabble.
Rearranging the letters in hostages produces 2 valid seven-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with hostage. For points, the strongest plays are gashest and hostage — each worth 11 points in Scrabble.
Unscrambling hostages turns up 9 six-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ghosts and stages. For points, the strongest plays are gashes and ghosts — each worth 10 points in Scrabble.
There are 54 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in hostages. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ashes, gases and gates. For points, 7 words tie at 9 points, including ghost, ghast and ghats.
Rearranging the letters in hostages produces 82 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ages, east and eats. For points, 8 words tie at 8 points, including gosh, hogs and gash.
Unscrambling hostages turns up 59 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with age, ago and ash. For points, the strongest plays are hag and hog — each worth 7 points in Scrabble.
There are 20 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in hostages. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ah, as and at. For points, 7 words tie at 5 points, including ah, eh and ha.
1 nine-letter word can be made using all the letters in hostages plus one additional letter.
Swap a single tile in hostages 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.
hostages 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.
Both totals match, because every tile in hostages carries the same value on a Scrabble board and on a Words With Friends board.
Dictionaries record one sense for hostages. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 12 points on a Scrabble board:
hostages is the only eight-letter word the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing hostages unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring play from these letters is hostages, worth 12 points in Scrabble, and no other word from hostages 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 hostages produce 227 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 1 eight-letter word, 2 seven-letter words, 9 six-letter words, 54 five-letter words, 82 four-letter words, 59 three-letter words and 20 two-letter words.