Hidden inside listen sit elints, enlist, inlets and 4 others, six-letter plays tied at the top of this rack with 6 points in Scrabble apiece. In all, 98 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
elints, enlist, inlets and 3 others tie for the highest Scrabble score from listen at 6 points. The top 10 of 98 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
There are 7 six-letter words hiding in listen: six come from rearranging its letters, and listen itself is already a playable word with no unscrambling required. If a familiar word is all you need, start with listen and silent. For points, the strongest plays are elints, enlist, inlets, intels, listen, silent, and tinsel — each worth 6 points in Scrabble.
The words below are listed alphabetically. Scores count playable tiles only and leave out premium-square bonuses.
There are 19 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in listen. If a familiar word is all you need, start with lines. For points, the strongest plays are elint, inlet, inset, intel, islet, istle, lenis, liens, lines, lints, lites, neist, nites, senti, stein, stile, teins, tiles, and tines — each worth 5 points in Scrabble.
The full list follows, sorted A to Z; every score reflects tile constraints and skips board bonuses.
Rearranging the letters in listen produces 33 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with lent, lets, lies, line, list, nest, and nets. For points, the strongest plays are isle, leis, lens, lent, lest, lets, lien, lies, line, lins, lint, list, lite, lits, nest, nets, nils, nite, nits, sent, silt, sine, site, slit, snit, tein, tels, tens, ties, tile, tils, tine, and tins — each worth 4 points in Scrabble.
Below, the list runs in alphabetical order, with each score based on the playable tile set — premium squares not included.
Unscrambling listen turns up 27 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with its, let, lie, lit, net, set, and sin. For points, the strongest plays are els, ens, est, ins, its, lei, let, lie, lin, lis, lit, net, nil, nit, sei, sel, sen, set, sin, sit, tel, ten, tes, tie, til, tin, and tis — each worth 3 points in Scrabble.
The words below are listed alphabetically. Scores count playable tiles only and leave out premium-square bonuses.
There are 12 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in listen. If a familiar word is all you need, start with in, is, and it. For points, the strongest plays are el, en, es, et, in, is, it, li, ne, si, te, and ti — each worth 2 points in Scrabble.
The full list follows, sorted A to Z; every score reflects tile constraints and skips board bonuses.
41 seven-letter words can be made using all the letters in listen plus one additional letter.
Swap a single tile in listen 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.
listen 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 2-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 listen. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 6 points on a Scrabble board:
listen is one of seven six-letter words the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing listen unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring plays from these letters are elints, enlist, inlets, intels, listen, silent, and tinsel, worth 6 points in Scrabble, and nothing else built from listen 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 listen produce 98 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 7 six-letter words, 19 five-letter words, 33 four-letter words, 27 three-letter words and 12 two-letter words.