Watch the tutorial for a short overview of gameplay.

Object

Finish with more points than anyone else at the table. You score by building sentences on a shared board. On each turn, you will have a set of lettered tiles that you can use to create words that begin with the letter on the tile. To play, use those words to build a real sentence that either starts the game or connects with an existing sentence.

Setup

The bag holds 100 letter tiles, with no blanks. How many there are of each letter and what each one is worth:

• All players draw 7 tiles that only they can see
• The player who initiated the game goes first with subsequent turns following the order in which each player joined the game.

Gameplay

1. The first play. The game starts when the first player forms a sentence, which must cover at least one of the 4 shaded squares at the center of the board
2. Creating words. Each of the 7 tiles in your rack represents a word that you can use to form a sentence. A T tile can be used to create the word “the” or “theatre”. To play a tile, move it from your rack onto the board with one word per square. Each tile can become any real English word that begins with the letter on the tile. Proper nouns and contractions are not accepted.
3. Forming a sentence. To play, you must combine your words into a sentence, reading left to right or top to bottom. The sentence must be a real, grammatically correct English sentence with at least one verb. The first sentence must cover at least one of the center squares and each subsequent sentence must use or lie beside at least one word already on the board and at least one word of your own.
4. Crossing and side-by-side. A new sentence may cross an existing sentence either horizontally or vertically. New sentences can also be used to form multiple sentences by crossing at a right angle. Words laid beside existing ones must read as real English sentences, too, and contribute to a player’s points total.
5. Extending. A new sentence can be formed by lengthening an existing sentence already on the board by adding words at its start, its end, or both. Points for an extension include both the existing words and the extending words.
6. Replacing tiles. After each turn, a player will get additional tiles to replace the tiles they used on the previous turn. This continues until the tile bag runs out.
7. Swapping. On any turn, a player can put back any number of their tiles and draw as many new ones to replace them. To swap, there must be at least 7 tiles remaining in the bag. Swapping uses a player’s turn and there is no limit to the number of swaps a player can make.
8. Passing. If a player cannot play a valid sentence, they can skip their turn.
9. Resigning. A user can resign the game at any time from the More menu. In a 2 player game, the remaining player automatically wins. In a game with more than 2 players, the remaining players continue playing.
10. Time limits. There is no clock on a turn. If the player whose turn it is doesn’t move for 7 days, they count as having resigned. With 2 players the game ends; with more, the rest play on. The player whose turn it is gets a warning email 2 days before. A game in which nobody ever moved, or that is still waiting for a player to join, simply lapses, with no winner.

Ending the game

• The game ends when the tile bag is empty and one player uses the last tile in their rack or all possible plays have been made (if each player passes or swaps during two consecutive turns)
• A game will also end if all but one player resigns
• At the end of the game, the value of the player’s remaining tiles will be subtracted from their score (not when the game ends by resignation or time) and the highest resulting score among players still in the game wins
• If two or more players share the highest score, the game is a tie and nobody wins

Scoring

• The score for each turn is the sum of the tile values from each sentence formed or modified in that turn, plus additional points from using premium squares. Existing words already on the board count towards a player’s turn if they are part of a sentence created or modified during their turn
• Premium Word Scores: Yellow squares will double (light yellow) or triple (dark yellow) the value of the word placed on top of it.
• Premium Sentence Scores: The score for an entire sentence will be doubled (light red) or tripled (dark red) if one of its words is placed on a red square. Premiums for word scores are included when doubling or tripling the score of a sentence. If a sentence touches multiple sentence squares, the values are multiplied together (up to two per sentence, so ×9 at most).
• Players who use all 7 of their tiles in a single play get an extra 10 points for that play. Note, the 10 points is added after all premium scores are accounted for and cannot be doubled or tripled.
• Premium Word and Sentence scores can only be used once. For example, if the word “house” was placed on a double word score and a new sentence uses that same word, it only counts its base value.
• Scores are calculated live during your turn. Players can also see the scores for previous plays by clicking on the sentence or scores for each player by clicking on their name.

Example

Word and Sentence Evaluation

The Dictionary

Every word has to be in our dictionary. It holds ordinary English words and their inflections. It does not hold names, places, days or months which are not valid words in this game. Possessives are valid, but contractions are not. Word validity is checked live as tiles are placed.

Grammar and Meaning

To be a valid play, sentences need to be complete and grammatically correct, including a subject and verb that agree. The sentence also must have a viable meaning in the English language and be a reasonable thing a person might say.

We got it wrong? Tell us. Sentence meaning is a mix of art and science and it’s possible we may get it wrong. If you think we rejected a valid sentence, please tap Learn more beside the rejection, then Tell us we got it wrong to notify us so we can improve for the future.

Reporting and Blocking

Player safety is paramount to us and so we’ve provided players multiple ways to report offensive words and harassment.

• Reporting. To report a sentence, click on the sentence on the board and click “report”. This will send the sentence to our moderation team. Reporting will not immediately impact gameplay, but will be sent to our moderation team who will make a judgement within 24 hours. If the report is upheld, we may remove the game for everyone in it and suspend or ban the player, depending on severity.
• Blocking. A player can block another player by clicking on a sentence and choosing Block, or from the More menu. Blocking resigns your games with that player, and neither of you can join a game with the other again