Hidden inside instances sit incessant and instances, nine-letter plays tied at the top of this rack with 11 points in Scrabble apiece. In all, 316 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
incessant and instances tie for the highest Scrabble score from instances at 11 points. The top 10 of 316 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
There are 2 nine-letter words hiding in instances: one comes from rearranging its letters, and instances itself is already a playable word with no unscrambling required. If a familiar word is all you need, start with instances. For points, the strongest plays are incessant and instances — each worth 11 points in Scrabble.
There are 8 eight-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in instances. If a familiar word is all you need, start with insanest and instance. For points, 6 words tie at 10 points, including instance, ancients and canniest.
Rearranging the letters in instances produces 30 valid seven-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ancient. For points, 19 words tie at 9 points, including ancient, acetins and ascents.
Unscrambling instances turns up 54 six-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with insane, nicest and saints. For points, 28 words tie at 8 points, including nicest, scents and acetin.
There are 73 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in instances. If a familiar word is all you need, start with cases, casts and cents. For points, 29 words tie at 7 points, including cases, casts and cents.
Rearranging the letters in instances produces 81 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with acts, ants and cans. For points, 30 words tie at 6 points, including acts, cans and case.
Unscrambling instances turns up 51 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with act, ant and ass. 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 instances. 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.
4 ten-letter words can be made using all the letters in instances plus one additional letter.
Swap a single tile in instances 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.
instances 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 instances. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 11 points on a Scrabble board:
instances is one of two nine-letter words the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing instances unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring plays from these letters are incessant and instances, worth 11 points in Scrabble, and nothing else built from instances 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 instances produce 316 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 2 nine-letter words, 8 eight-letter words, 30 seven-letter words, 54 six-letter words, 73 five-letter words, 81 four-letter words, 51 three-letter words and 17 two-letter words.