contests needs no unscrambling at all — the eight-letter word is already the strongest play its own letters allow, banking 10 points in Scrabble as it stands. In all, 139 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
contests is the highest-scoring word from contests, worth 10 points in Scrabble. The top 10 of 139 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
Only one eight-letter word uses the letters in contests — and it is contests itself. No unscrambling is needed: the word is already playable as written, worth 10 points in Scrabble.
Unscrambling contests turns up 15 six-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with scents and stones. For points, 9 words tie at 8 points, including scents, centos and cestos.
There are 35 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in contests. If a familiar word is all you need, start with cents, cones and costs. For points, 16 words tie at 7 points, including cents, cones and costs.
Rearranging the letters in contests produces 45 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with cent, cone and cons. For points, 14 words tie at 6 points, including cent, cone and cons.
Unscrambling contests turns up 29 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with con, net and not. For points, 7 words tie at 5 points, including con, cos and cot.
There are 11 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in contests. If a familiar word is all you need, start with no, on, so, and to. For points, 11 words tie at 2 points, including no, on and so.
1 nine-letter word can be made using all the letters in contests plus one additional letter.
Swap a single tile in contests 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.
contests 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 contests. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 10 points on a Scrabble board:
contests is the only eight-letter word the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing contests unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring play from these letters is contests, worth 10 points in Scrabble, and no other word from contests 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 contests produce 139 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 1 eight-letter word, 3 seven-letter words, 15 six-letter words, 35 five-letter words, 45 four-letter words, 29 three-letter words and 11 two-letter words.