Hidden inside retaliate sit aliterate and retaliate, nine-letter plays tied at the top of this rack with 9 points in Scrabble apiece. In all, 195 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
aliterate and retaliate tie for the highest Scrabble score from retaliate at 9 points. The top 10 of 195 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
There are 2 nine-letter words hiding in retaliate: one comes from rearranging its letters, and retaliate itself is already a playable word with no unscrambling required. No common everyday answer stands out among these nine-letter results, so let the score decide: the highest-scoring words are aliterate and retaliate, each worth 9 points in Scrabble.
The words below are listed alphabetically. Scores count playable tiles only and leave out premium-square bonuses.
There are 2 eight-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in retaliate. No common everyday answer stands out among these eight-letter results, so let the score decide: the highest-scoring words are laterite and literate, 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 retaliate produces 7 valid seven-letter words. No common everyday answer stands out among these seven-letter results, so let the score decide: the highest-scoring words are arietta, ariette, atelier, iterate, rattail, retitle, and tertial, 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 retaliate turns up 19 six-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with letter and relate. For points, the strongest plays are aerate, aerial, atrial, attire, elater, lariat, latria, latter, letter, litter, ratite, rattle, realia, relate, retail, retial, retile, tailer, and tilter — 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 52 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in retaliate. If a familiar word is all you need, start with alert, altar, alter, later, latte, title, and trail. For points, the strongest plays are aerie, alate, alert, altar, alter, areae, areal, arete, ariel, artal, artel, atilt, atria, attar, eater, elate, elite, irate, laari, laree, later, latte, liter, litre, raita, ratal, ratel, reata, relet, relit, retia, retie, riata, talar, taler, tatar, tater, telae, telia, terai, tetra, tetri, tiara, tiler, titer, title, titre, trail, trait, treat, trial, and trite — 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 retaliate produces 55 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with area, late, liar, rate, real, tail, and tale. For points, the strongest plays are airt, alae, alar, alee, alit, area, aria, arie, aril, earl, ilea, lair, lari, late, lati, lear, leer, leet, liar, lier, lira, lire, lite, raia, rail, rale, rate, real, reel, rete, rial, riel, rile, rite, tael, tail, tala, tale, tali, tare, tart, tate, teal, tear, teat, teel, tela, tele, tier, tile, tilt, tire, tirl, tree, and tret — 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 retaliate turns up 42 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with air, are, art, ate, ear, eat, and era. For points, the strongest plays are aal, ail, air, ait, ala, ale, alt, are, art, ate, att, ear, eat, eel, era, ere, eta, ire, lar, lat, lea, lee, lei, let, lie, lit, rai, rat, ree, rei, ret, ria, tae, tar, tat, tea, tee, tel, tet, tie, til, and tit — 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 16 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in retaliate. If a familiar word is all you need, start with at and it. For points, the strongest plays are aa, ae, ai, al, ar, at, el, er, et, it, la, li, re, ta, 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.
4 ten-letter words can be made using all the letters in retaliate plus one additional letter.
Swap a single tile in retaliate and you get a different nine-letter rack with its own word list. None of these appear in the results above — they share 8 of the 9 letters, not all of them.
retaliate 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 two senses for retaliate. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 9 points on a Scrabble board:
retaliate is one of two nine-letter words the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing retaliate unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring plays from these letters are aliterate and retaliate, worth 9 points in Scrabble, and nothing else built from retaliate 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 retaliate produce 195 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 2 nine-letter words, 2 eight-letter words, 7 seven-letter words, 19 six-letter words, 52 five-letter words, 55 four-letter words, 42 three-letter words and 16 two-letter words.