Hidden inside tamales sit malates, maltase, and tamales, seven-letter plays tied at the top of this rack with 9 points in Scrabble apiece. In all, 158 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
malates, maltase, and tamales tie for the highest Scrabble score from tamales at 9 points. The top 10 of 158 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
There are 3 seven-letter words hiding in tamales: two come from rearranging its letters, and tamales itself is already a playable word with no unscrambling required. No common everyday answer stands out among these seven-letter results, so let the score decide: the highest-scoring words are malates, maltase, and tamales, each worth 9 points in Scrabble.
Below, the list runs in alphabetical order, with each score based on the playable tile set — premium squares not included.
Unscrambling tamales turns up 8 six-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with lamest and metals. For points, the strongest plays are lamest, malate, meatal, metals, samlet, tamale, and tamals — each worth 8 points in Scrabble.
The words below are listed alphabetically. Scores count playable tiles only and leave out premium-square bonuses.
There are 33 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in tamales. If a familiar word is all you need, start with least, males, mates, meals, meats, melts, and metal. For points, the strongest plays are almas, almes, atmas, lamas, lames, males, malts, mates, meals, meats, melts, metal, satem, smalt, smelt, steam, tamal, tames, and teams — each worth 7 points in Scrabble.
The full list follows, sorted A to Z; every score reflects tile constraints and skips board bonuses.
Rearranging the letters in tamales produces 61 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with east, eats, lame, last, late, lets, and male. For points, the strongest plays are alma, alme, alms, amas, atma, elms, lama, lame, lams, maes, male, malt, masa, mast, mate, mats, meal, meat, mels, melt, mesa, meta, same, seam, slam, stem, tame, tams, and team — each worth 6 points in Scrabble.
Below, the list runs in alphabetical order, with each score based on the playable tile set — premium squares not included.
Unscrambling tamales turns up 38 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ate, eat, let, met, sat, sea, and set. For points, the strongest plays are ama, elm, ems, lam, mae, mas, mat, mel, mes, met, and tam — each worth 5 points in Scrabble.
The words below are listed alphabetically. Scores count playable tiles only and leave out premium-square bonuses.
There are 15 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in tamales. If a familiar word is all you need, start with am, as, at, and me. For points, the strongest plays are am, em, ma, and me — each worth 4 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 tamales and you get a different seven-letter rack with its own word list. None of these appear in the results above — they share 6 of the 7 letters, not all of them.
tamales 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 2-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 tamales. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 9 points on a Scrabble board:
tamales is one of three seven-letter words the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing tamales unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring plays from these letters are malates, maltase, and tamales, worth 9 points in Scrabble, and nothing else built from tamales 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 tamales produce 158 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 3 seven-letter words, 8 six-letter words, 33 five-letter words, 61 four-letter words, 38 three-letter words and 15 two-letter words.