Hidden inside overlay sit layover and overlay, seven-letter plays tied at the top of this rack with 13 points in Scrabble apiece. In all, 106 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
layover and overlay tie for the highest Scrabble score from overlay at 13 points. The top 10 of 106 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
There are 2 seven-letter words hiding in overlay: one comes from rearranging its letters, and overlay itself is already a playable word with no unscrambling required. No common everyday answer stands out among these seven-letter results, so let the score decide: the highest-scoring words are layover and overlay, each worth 13 points in Scrabble.
Below, the list runs in alphabetical order, with each score based on the playable tile set — premium squares not included.
Unscrambling overlay turns up 2 six-letter words. No common everyday answer stands out among these six-letter results, so let the score decide: the highest-scoring words are overly and volery, each worth 12 points in Scrabble.
The words below are listed alphabetically. Scores count playable tiles only and leave out premium-square bonuses.
There are 17 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in overlay. If a familiar word is all you need, start with early, layer, and lover. For points, the strongest plays are leavy, lovey, ovary, ravey, and vealy — each worth 11 points in Scrabble.
The full list follows, sorted A to Z; every score reflects tile constraints and skips board bonuses.
Rearranging the letters in overlay produces 39 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with love, oral, over, real, rely, role, and veal. For points, the strongest plays are levy, vary, and very — each worth 10 points in Scrabble.
Below, the list runs in alphabetical order, with each score based on the playable tile set — premium squares not included.
Unscrambling overlay turns up 31 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with are, aye, ear, era, and lay. For points, the strongest plays are ave, avo, aye, lav, lay, lev, ley, lye, ova, ray, rev, rya, rye, var, voe, yar, yea, and yer — 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 15 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in overlay. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ay, or, oy, and yo. For points, the strongest plays are ay, oy, ya, ye, and yo — each worth 5 points in Scrabble.
The full list follows, sorted A to Z; every score reflects tile constraints and skips board bonuses.
Swap a single tile in overlay and you get a different seven-letter rack with its own word list. None of these appear in the results above — they share 6 of the 7 letters, not all of them.
overlay 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 1-point gap between the two totals comes from the tile values themselves: Scrabble and Words With Friends price the same letters differently.
Dictionaries record four senses for overlay. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 13 points on a Scrabble board:
overlay is one of two seven-letter words the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing overlay unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring plays from these letters are layover and overlay, worth 13 points in Scrabble, and nothing else built from overlay 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 overlay produce 106 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 2 seven-letter words, 2 six-letter words, 17 five-letter words, 39 four-letter words, 31 three-letter words and 15 two-letter words.