fer and ref tie for the highest Scrabble score from ref at 6 points. The top 6 of 6 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
There are 2 three-letter words hiding in ref: one comes from rearranging its letters, and ref itself is already a playable word with no unscrambling required. No common everyday answer stands out among these three-letter results, so let the score decide: the highest-scoring words are fer and ref, 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 4 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in ref. No common everyday answer stands out among these two-letter results, so let the score decide: the highest-scoring words are ef and fe, 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 ref and you get a different three-letter rack with its own word list. None of these appear in the results above — they share 2 of the 3 letters, not all of them.
ref 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.
Both totals match, because every tile in ref carries the same value on a Scrabble board and on a Words With Friends board.
Dictionaries record one sense for ref. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 6 points on a Scrabble board:
ref is one of two three-letter words the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing ref unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring plays from these letters are fer and ref, worth 6 points in Scrabble, and nothing else built from ref 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 ref produce 6 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 2 three-letter words and 4 two-letter words.