Hidden inside tear sit rate, tare, and tear, four-letter plays tied at the top of this rack with 4 points in Scrabble apiece. In all, 23 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
rate, tare, and tear tie for the highest Scrabble score from tear at 4 points. The top 10 of 23 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
There are 3 four-letter words hiding in tear: two come from rearranging its letters, and tear itself is already a playable word with no unscrambling required. If a familiar word is all you need, start with rate and tear. For points, the strongest plays are rate, tare, and tear — 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 tear turns up 12 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with are, art, ate, ear, eat, era, and rat. For points, the strongest plays are are, art, ate, ear, eat, era, eta, rat, ret, tae, tar, and tea — 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 8 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in tear. If a familiar word is all you need, start with at. For points, the strongest plays are ae, ar, at, er, et, re, ta, and te — each worth 2 points in Scrabble.
The full list follows, sorted A to Z; every score reflects tile constraints and skips board bonuses.
73 five-letter words can be made using all the letters in tear plus one additional letter.
Swap a single tile in tear and you get a different four-letter rack with its own word list. None of these appear in the results above — they share 3 of the 4 letters, not all of them.
tear 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 tear carries the same value on a Scrabble board and on a Words With Friends board.
Dictionaries record nine senses for tear. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 4 points on a Scrabble board:
tear is one of three four-letter words the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing tear unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring plays from these letters are rate, tare, and tear, worth 4 points in Scrabble, and nothing else built from tear 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 tear produce 23 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 3 four-letter words, 12 three-letter words and 8 two-letter words.