Hidden inside specials sit slipcase and specials, eight-letter plays tied at the top of this rack with 12 points in Scrabble apiece. In all, 263 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
slipcase and specials tie for the highest Scrabble score from specials at 12 points. The top 10 of 263 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
There are 2 eight-letter words hiding in specials: one comes from rearranging its letters, and specials itself is already a playable word with no unscrambling required. If a familiar word is all you need, start with specials. For points, the strongest plays are slipcase and specials — each worth 12 points in Scrabble.
Rearranging the letters in specials produces 8 valid seven-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with special. For points, the strongest plays are capless, plaices, special, and splices — each worth 11 points in Scrabble.
Unscrambling specials turns up 35 six-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with aisles, places and scales. For points, 15 words tie at 10 points, including places, spaces and spices.
There are 73 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in specials. If a familiar word is all you need, start with aisle, capes and cases. For points, 18 words tie at 9 points, including capes, claps and clips.
Rearranging the letters in specials produces 84 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with apes, cape and caps. For points, 13 words tie at 8 points, including cape, caps and clap.
Unscrambling specials turns up 48 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ape, ass and cap. For points, 5 words tie at 7 points, including cap, cep and pac.
There are 13 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in specials. If a familiar word is all you need, start with as and is. For points, the strongest plays are pa, pe, and pi — each worth 4 points in Scrabble.
10 nine-letter words can be made using all the letters in specials plus one additional letter.
Swap a single tile in specials 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.
specials 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 3-point gap between the two totals comes from the tile values themselves: Scrabble and Words With Friends price the same letters differently.
Dictionaries record ten senses for specials. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 12 points on a Scrabble board:
specials is one of two eight-letter words the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing specials unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring plays from these letters are slipcase and specials, worth 12 points in Scrabble, and nothing else built from specials 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 specials produce 263 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 2 eight-letter words, 8 seven-letter words, 35 six-letter words, 73 five-letter words, 84 four-letter words, 48 three-letter words and 13 two-letter words.