Hidden inside instance sit ancients, canniest, insectan and 1 other, eight-letter plays tied at the top of this rack with 10 points in Scrabble apiece. In all, 230 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
ancients, canniest, insectan and 6 others tie for the highest Scrabble score from instance at 10 points. The top 10 of 230 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
There are 4 eight-letter words hiding in instance: three come from rearranging its letters, and instance itself is already a playable word with no unscrambling required. If a familiar word is all you need, start with instance. For points, the strongest plays are ancients, canniest, insectan, and instance — each worth 10 points in Scrabble.
Rearranging the letters in instance produces 11 valid seven-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ancient. For points, 9 words tie at 9 points, including ancient, acetins and canines.
Unscrambling instance turns up 34 six-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with insane, nicest, and tennis. For points, 22 words tie at 8 points, including nicest, acetin and actins.
There are 48 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in instance. If a familiar word is all you need, start with cents, nines and saint. For points, 22 words tie at 7 points, including cents, scent and since.
Rearranging the letters in instance produces 68 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with acts, ants and cans. For points, 26 words tie at 6 points, including acts, cans and case.
Unscrambling instance turns up 48 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with act, ant and ate. For points, 11 words tie at 5 points, including act, can and cat.
There are 17 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in instance. If a familiar word is all you need, start with an, as and at. For points, 17 words tie at 2 points, including an, as and at.
6 nine-letter words can be made using all the letters in instance plus one additional letter.
Swap a single tile in instance 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.
instance 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 3-point gap between the two totals comes from the tile values themselves: Scrabble and Words With Friends price the same letters differently.
Dictionaries record three senses for instance. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 10 points on a Scrabble board:
instance is one of four eight-letter words the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing instance unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring plays from these letters are ancients, canniest, insectan, and instance, worth 10 points in Scrabble, and nothing else built from instance 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 instance produce 230 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 4 eight-letter words, 11 seven-letter words, 34 six-letter words, 48 five-letter words, 68 four-letter words, 48 three-letter words and 17 two-letter words.