date needs no unscrambling at all — the four-letter word is already the strongest play its own letters allow, banking 5 points in Scrabble as it stands. In all, 17 valid words come out of this rack, grouped by length below and checked for Words With Friends as well as Scrabble.
date is the highest-scoring word from date, worth 5 points in Scrabble. The top 10 of 17 words are shown here, with the full list organized by length below.
Only one four-letter word uses the letters in date — and it is date itself. No unscrambling is needed: the word is already playable as written, worth 5 points in Scrabble.
Unscrambling date turns up 7 three-letter words. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ate, eat, tad, and tea. For points, the strongest plays are tad and ted — each worth 4 points in Scrabble.
The words below are listed alphabetically. Scores count playable tiles only and leave out premium-square bonuses.
There are 9 two-letter words that can be made by unscrambling the letters in date. If a familiar word is all you need, start with ad and at. For points, the strongest plays are ad, da, de, and ed — each worth 3 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 date 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.
date 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 date carries the same value on a Scrabble board and on a Words With Friends board.
Dictionaries record twelve senses for date. Scrabble and Words With Friends score tiles and not meanings, so every sense below is worth the same 5 points on a Scrabble board:
date is the only four-letter word the same letters produce. No arrangement of the same tiles scores higher in Scrabble, so playing date unchanged also takes the maximum points these letters offer.
The highest-scoring play from these letters is date, worth 5 points in Scrabble, and no other word from date 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 date produce 17 valid words in the Scrabble and Words With Friends dictionaries. The word count by length is: 1 four-letter word, 7 three-letter words and 9 two-letter words.