Hidden inside earliest sit ateliers, earliest, leariest and 1 other, eight-letter plays tied at the top of this rack with 8 points in Scrabble apiece. In all, 393 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
ateliers, earliest, leariest and 6 others tie for the highest Scrabble score from earliest at 8 points. The top 10 of 393 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
There are 4 eight-letter words hiding in earliest: three come from rearranging its letters, and earliest itself is already a playable word with no unscrambling required. If a familiar word is all you need, start with earliest. For points, the strongest plays are ateliers, earliest, leariest, and realties — each worth 8 points in Scrabble.
Rearranging the letters in earliest produces 18 valid seven-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with relates and saltier. For points, 18 words tie at 7 points, including relates, saltier and aeriest.
Unscrambling earliest turns up 61 six-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with alerts, alters and easier. For points, 61 words tie at 6 points, including alerts, alters and easier.
There are 111 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in earliest. If a familiar word is all you need, start with aisle, alert and alter. For points, 111 words tie at 5 points, including aisle, alert and alter.
Rearranging the letters in earliest produces 117 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with airs, arts and last. For points, 117 words tie at 4 points, including airs, arts and last.
Unscrambling earliest turns up 63 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with air, are and art. For points, 63 words tie at 3 points, including air, are and art.
There are 19 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in earliest. If a familiar word is all you need, start with as, at, is, and it. For points, 19 words tie at 2 points, including as, at and is.
29 nine-letter words can be made using all the letters in earliest plus one additional letter.
Swap a single tile in earliest 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.
earliest 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 earliest. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 8 points on a Scrabble board:
earliest is one of four eight-letter words the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing earliest unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring plays from these letters are ateliers, earliest, leariest, and realties, worth 8 points in Scrabble, and nothing else built from earliest 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 earliest produce 393 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 4 eight-letter words, 18 seven-letter words, 61 six-letter words, 111 five-letter words, 117 four-letter words, 63 three-letter words and 19 two-letter words.