Learn
Deep, original guides on Scrabble, Wordle, Words With Friends, vocabulary, word origins, spelling and anagram puzzles. New guides added weekly.
History
History of Scrabble
The full story of Scrabble: Alfred Butts' Lexiko, the reinvention as Criss-Crosswords, the Selchow & Righter deal, tournament culture, and the digital era.
History of Word Games
From Roman word squares to Wordle: a long history of word games, their inventors, their cultural moments, and what they say about how we play with language.
Language
Practical Ways to Build and Remember Vocabulary
Practical, no-hype techniques for building a bigger vocabulary — spaced repetition, reading at your level, roots and affixes, active use in writing.
Understanding Anagrams
Everything about anagrams: the definition, the history, the techniques to solve them fast, and the famous anagrams that reveal hidden meaning in ordinary words.
Reference
Common Prefixes
A reference of the 40 most common English prefixes: meaning, origin, examples, and how to use them to guess unfamiliar words and score more in word games.
Common Suffixes
A reference of common English suffixes: what they mean, how they change a word's part of speech, and how to use them in word games and vocabulary building.
Letter Frequency in English
How often each letter appears in English — with data from newspapers, novels and Scrabble tile distributions — and why it matters for word games and cryptography.
British vs American Word Lists
Different Scrabble and word-game dictionaries maintain different proprietary or licensed lists — a word accepted in one game may be rejected in another. This guide covers the CSW / NWL landscape and British vs American spelling variants.
scrabble
Q Without U: The Complete List and How to Play Them
Every valid Q-without-U word in tournament Scrabble, with the racks and hooks that make them score.
Scrabble Endgame Counting: Playing Out for the Win
Turn-by-turn arithmetic for the last five moves of a Scrabble game, including the double-your-opponent's-tiles bonus.
Scrabble Openings: The 30-Point First Move
Best opening plays by rack shape, with worked scores from the H8 double-letter square.
High-Value Hooks Every Scrabble Player Should Know
The single-letter add-ons that turn ordinary words into premium plays.
Learning Scrabble Word Lists: A Realistic 8-Week Plan
A practical schedule for memorising the two-letter list, Q-words, and top bingo stems without burning out.
How to Use Blanks in Scrabble Without Wasting Them
The rules of thumb for holding, playing, and never burning a blank on a 12-point word.
Rack Management: The Vowel-Consonant Ratio That Wins Games
Why 3 vowels + 4 consonants beats a 60-point play with a stuck leave.
How to Bingo More Often in Scrabble
A build-time-generated guide to Scrabble bingo stems: every stem, count and example word below is enumerated from the ENABLE dictionary — nothing hand-typed.
The 127 Two-Letter Collins Scrabble Words: ENABLE Comparison and Complete List
A side-by-side comparison of the 127 two-letter Collins Scrabble words against the ENABLE list used across our site, with the complete list, scores, and definitions.
Defensive Scrabble: When Not to Open a Triple Lane
How elite Scrabble players trade points for board control and shut down bingo threats.
Strategy
Scrabble Strategy Guide
A complete Scrabble strategy guide for intermediate and advanced players: rack balance, bingo hunting, board vision, endgame counting and defensive plays.
Wordle Strategy Guide
A data-driven Wordle strategy guide: the best opening words, second-guess principles, information theory, hard-mode tactics and the traps to avoid.
Word Game Tips for Beginners
A friendly, universal guide for beginners in word games: shared skills across Scrabble, Words With Friends, Wordle, Wordscapes and Boggle — with 25 concrete tips.
How to Win at Scrabble: 12 Strategies the Pros Use
Learn how to win at Scrabble with 12 proven strategies: rack management, hooks, bonus squares, two-letter words, and endgame tactics used by tournament players.
Wordscapes Strategy Guide
A pattern-based approach to Wordscapes: how to work the letter wheel, use prefixes and suffixes, spot digraphs, and unblock hard levels without spending coins.
Words With Friends Strategy
How to win more Words With Friends games: manage your rack, exploit the WWF-specific letter values, and know when to swap, block, or push for a 35-point bingo.
Tools
wordle
How to Solve Wordle in Three: Second-Guess Principles
When to preserve information versus commit to a candidate — and the small tricks that turn a 4 into a 3.
Wordle's Trap Words: Common Endings and Vowel Traps
The suffix families (‑OUND, ‑IGHT, ‑ATCH) that eat guesses, and how to disambiguate them cheaply.
The Wordle Answer Distribution: What Two Years of Data Show
Patterns in NYT Wordle answers — first-letter frequency, double letters, and how they affect strategy.
Teaching Kids Wordle: A Gentle Introduction
Age-appropriate ways to introduce Wordle-style guessing without frustration.
Wordle vs Quordle vs Octordle: Adapting Your Strategy
Why the best Wordle opener is a bad Octordle opener, with letter-coverage tables for each format.
The Best Wordle Opening Words Backed by Information Theory
Why STARE, CRANE and SLATE keep winning the opening word debate, with the maths behind expected-information gain.
Wordle Hard Mode: A Realistic Strategy
How to keep guess two flexible when hard mode locks in every green and yellow.
wwf
How to Read a WWF Opponent's Rack
You cannot see your opponent's tiles in Words With Friends, but you can infer most of them. Here are the signals — draw arithmetic, refusal patterns and endgame counting — that let you read a rack with useful accuracy.
WWF Solo Challenge: Practising Without a Human Opponent
Solo Challenge is the closest thing WWF has to a practice mode. Here's how to use it deliberately — rack pulls, board reading, and score benchmarks — instead of just tapping through.
Winning WWF: Using the Triple-Word Squares Aggressively
Board-vision drills specific to the WWF layout and its offset premium squares.
The WWF Dictionary: What's In and What's Out
Words that are legal in WWF but not TWL/Collins, and the gotchas that come with a proprietary list.
Words With Friends vs Scrabble: The Board and Tile Differences
How the WWF board, tile distribution and dictionary change strategy compared with tournament Scrabble.