Hidden inside tarnishes sit starshine and tarnishes, nine-letter plays tied at the top of this rack with 12 points in Scrabble apiece. In all, 595 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
starshine and tarnishes tie for the highest Scrabble score from tarnishes at 12 points. The top 10 of 595 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
There are 2 nine-letter words hiding in tarnishes: one comes from rearranging its letters, and tarnishes 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 starshine and tarnishes, each worth 12 points in Scrabble.
There are 11 eight-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in tarnishes. No common everyday answer stands out among these eight-letter results, so let the score decide: the highest-scoring words are anthesis, hairnets, inearths and 4 more, each worth 11 points in Scrabble.
Rearranging the letters in tarnishes produces 53 valid seven-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with nastier and trashes. For points, 26 words tie at 10 points, including trashes, anthers and arshins.
Unscrambling tarnishes turns up 106 six-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with hearts, raises and rashes. For points, 40 words tie at 9 points, including hearts, rashes and shares.
There are 167 five-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in tarnishes. If a familiar word is all you need, start with saint, saner and seats. For points, 58 words tie at 8 points, including share, shier and shine.
Rearranging the letters in tarnishes produces 149 valid four-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with airs, ants and arts. For points, 52 words tie at 7 points, including rash, hair and hate.
Unscrambling tarnishes turns up 81 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with air, ant and are. For points, 21 words tie at 6 points, including ash, has and hat.
There are 26 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in tarnishes. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ah, an and as. For points, 6 words tie at 5 points, including ah, eh and ha.
7 ten-letter words can be made using all the letters in tarnishes plus one additional letter.
Swap a single tile in tarnishes 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.
tarnishes 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 tarnishes carries the same value on a Scrabble board and on a Words With Friends board.
Dictionaries record two senses for tarnishes. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 12 points on a Scrabble board:
tarnishes is one of two nine-letter words the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing tarnishes unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring plays from these letters are starshine and tarnishes, worth 12 points in Scrabble, and nothing else built from tarnishes 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 tarnishes produce 595 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 2 nine-letter words, 11 eight-letter words, 53 seven-letter words, 106 six-letter words, 167 five-letter words, 149 four-letter words, 81 three-letter words and 26 two-letter words.