Hidden inside hotaru is one standout: author, a six-letter play worth 9 points in Scrabble — the ceiling for this rack. In all, 59 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
HOTARU isn’t a word itself: it unscrambles to AUTHOR (verb), to write, worth 9 points in Scrabble.
author is the highest-scoring word from hotaru, worth 9 points in Scrabble. The top 10 of 59 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
Unscrambling hotaru produces exactly one six-letter word: author. It is an everyday word and an easy play, worth 9 points in Scrabble.
There are 2 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in hotaru. No common everyday answer stands out among these five-letter results, so let the score decide: the highest-scoring words are routh and torah, each worth 8 points in Scrabble.
Rearranging the letters in hotaru produces 22 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with auto, hour and hurt. For points, 13 words tie at 7 points, including hour, hurt and oath.
Unscrambling hotaru turns up 23 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with art, hat and hot. For points, 7 words tie at 6 points, including hat, hot and tho.
2 seven-letter words can be made using all the letters in hotaru plus one additional letter.
Swap a single tile in hotaru and you get a different six-letter rack with its own word list. None of these appear in the results above — they share 5 of the 6 letters, not all of them.
The highest-scoring play from these letters is author, worth 9 points in Scrabble, and no other word from hotaru 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 hotaru produce 59 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 1 six-letter word, 2 five-letter words, 22 four-letter words, 23 three-letter words and 11 two-letter words.