Every Scrabble player gets bad racks: five vowels, or seven consonants with nothing to join them. A bad rack can cost you more than one turn. If you play a small word and keep the worst tiles, your next rack is bad too.
The fix is usually to play off the problem tiles, even for a lower score, so your next rack has a better mix. That often takes unusual words, which this guide lists.
Why it happens so often
A standard English Scrabble set has 100 tiles. 42 of them are vowels: 12 E, 9 A, 9 I, 8 O and 4 U. There are also 2 Y tiles and 2 blanks. With that many vowels in the bag, you will often draw five or more at once. Other times you will draw mostly consonants.
Aim for two or three vowels on your rack. Nine out of ten seven letter words in our word list have two or three vowels (not counting Y), so a balanced rack gives you the best chance of a bingo on the next turn.
Too many vowels
Start with the two letter words made only of vowels: AA, AE, AI, OE and OI. They are worth little, but each one clears two vowels and fits in many places. EAU is the only three letter word in our list made only of vowels.
For more vowels in one play, learn the five letter words that have just one consonant:
- adieu 6
- aerie 5
- aioli 5
- audio 6
- aurei 5
- eerie 5
- louie 5
- miaou 7
- ourie 5
- queue 14
- uraei 5
Here is a typical vowel heavy rack:
Enter all seven letters on the word finder. When you enter more letters than the word length, the finder lists every word you can make from some of them. This rack makes 15 three letter words. Its four letter words are AERO, EURO, ROUE and UREA, and its five letter words are AUREI, OURIE and URAEI. Each five letter word plays four vowels and keeps only two tiles, so you draw five new ones.
Play off duplicates first. Two I tiles are worse than an I and an A: our list has 1,660 seven letter words with two or more I tiles, and 4,522 with both an I and an A. A play that keeps one I is usually better than one that keeps both.
Too many consonants
A few words in our list have no vowels at all, not even Y. Most are sounds or borrowed words, but all are valid:
- brr 5
- cwm 10
- hmm 10
- nth 6
- pht 8
- psst 6
- shh 9
- tsk 7
- crwth 13
- pfft 12
More words use Y as the only vowel. Learn these, since a rack with a Y and only consonants is common:
- crypt 12
- glyph 14
- gypsy 14
- lymph 15
- myrrh 13
- nymph 15
- psych 15
- pygmy 16
- rhythm 17
Here is a consonant heavy rack with a Y:
It makes two four letter words, MYTH and SKRY, and one five letter word, MYTHS, which clears five tiles and keeps only the K and R.
Play through the board
Some racks make nothing at all on their own:
This rack has no five letter words, and no shorter ones either. But the board usually has open vowels. Add one to your letters and also type it in the box for its position, so the results fit the space on the board.
Say the board has an open A. Search five letter words with C D H L R S T plus A, and put the A in the third box. That gives 17 words, including CHARD, CHART, CLASH, CRASH, SHARD and TRASH. Each one clears four consonants. With an O instead, you can reach six letters: CHORDS, CLOTHS, SCHORL and SCHROD each clear five.
When to exchange instead
Sometimes nothing works. Take a rack of A A E I I O U: its only three letter word is EAU, and it has no longer words. Playing EAU leaves four vowels, so the next rack will probably be just as bad.
That is the time to exchange. You lose the turn, but you can swap any number of tiles, as long as at least seven are left in the bag. Some guidelines:
- Exchange when every play keeps the bad tiles. If the best play scores well but leaves four vowels, an exchange may be worth more over the next two turns.
- Keep your good tiles. Hold onto a blank, an S, and a balanced pair like E R or A T, and throw back duplicates and awkward letters.
- Do not wait too long. Once fewer than seven tiles remain in the bag, you cannot exchange at all, and when the game ends, the value of the tiles left on your rack is taken off your score.
Quick reference
- All vowels: AA, AE, AI, OE, OI, EAU.
- One consonant, five letters: ADIEU, AERIE, AIOLI, AUDIO, AUREI, EERIE, OURIE, QUEUE, URAEI.
- No vowels at all: BRR, CWM, HMM, NTH, PHT, PSST, SHH, TSK, CRWTH, PFFT.
- Y as the only vowel: CRYPT, GLYPH, LYMPH, MYRRH, NYMPH, PSYCH, PYGMY, RHYTHM.
To check any rack, enter all seven tiles on the 3, 4 or 5 letter word finder and look for the play that clears the most problem tiles, not just the one that scores the most.