Hidden inside refer sit freer, frere, and refer, five-letter plays tied at the top of this rack with 8 points in Scrabble apiece. In all, 16 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
freer, frere, and refer tie for the highest Scrabble score from refer at 8 points. The top 10 of 16 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
There are 3 five-letter words hiding in refer: two come from rearranging its letters, and refer itself is already a playable word with no unscrambling required. If a familiar word is all you need, start with freer and refer. For points, the strongest plays are freer, frere, and refer — each worth 8 points in Scrabble.
The full list follows, sorted A to Z; every score reflects tile constraints and skips board bonuses.
Rearranging the letters in refer produces 3 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with free. For points, the strongest plays are fere, free, and reef — each worth 7 points in Scrabble.
Below, the list runs in alphabetical order, with each score based on the playable tile set — premium squares not included.
Unscrambling refer turns up 6 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with fee. For points, the strongest plays are fee, 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 refer. 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 refer and you get a different five-letter rack with its own word list. None of these appear in the results above — they share 4 of the 5 letters, not all of them.
refer 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 refer carries the same value on a Scrabble board and on a Words With Friends board.
Dictionaries record seven senses for refer. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 8 points on a Scrabble board:
refer is one of three five-letter words the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing refer unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring plays from these letters are freer, frere, and refer, worth 8 points in Scrabble, and nothing else built from refer 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 refer produce 16 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 3 five-letter words, 3 four-letter words, 6 three-letter words and 4 two-letter words.