# Best Scrabble word: **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 10, 2001, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314 "2001-01-10T12:19:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Byzantine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dfb087/32.png) [@Byzantine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Byzantine)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/1 "2001-01-10T12:19:32Z")
My mom rocked my world with: Goyim. Hey, yeah, it’s an obscure word but she hit double letter and triple word score! I’d say “that bitch” but hey, it’s my MOM! ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/2 "2001-01-10T14:22:05Z")
When I was 16 I rocked my Grandma by coming up with “apartheid”. She was so thrilled she got out of the RV and went over to her Cousin Norma’s RV and made her come look at what her brilliant granddaughter had done. _Grand_ma… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/3 "2001-01-10T15:45:50Z")
Oddly enough, my best word is “byzantine”. Yes, I actually got to play it. IIRC, I hit a double letter score on the “z” and a triple word score. That’s around 126 points, I think–I was rather proud of it. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/4 "2001-01-10T15:49:55Z")
I’m rather fond of the word “QAT” since it’s saved my butt many a time when I was close to getting stuck with the Q. I play my mom in Scrabble every single day via the internet. She usually waxes my butt. She’s met people from all over playing on those boards, and she’s even attended a sewing/quilting expo with one of them who lives 1200 miles away from her. Pretty good for a 60 year old, eh? 126 points is impressive! ---
**Author:** ![muppetsoup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@muppetsoup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muppetsoup)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/5 "2001-01-10T15:53:21Z")
KWYJIBO ---
**Author:** ![scratch1300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/6 "2001-01-10T16:12:32Z")
One time, my girlfriend suggested that we play Scrabble using only “dirty words”. Well, I thought this was an impractical scheme, but I drew my seven tiles (my turn first) and lo! – I had ORGASMS! ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/7 "2001-01-10T16:21:45Z")
But I was playing a guy one time, and before he put his word down he said, "You might not be familiar with this word, but it described a mythological black, one-horned, horse-like creature. His word: “UNICOON” ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/8 "2001-01-10T16:57:50Z")
I’m still proud of playing GAZELLES on a double-word score the other night (86 points). ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/9 "2001-01-10T18:05:33Z")
I think my best play ever, as far as points go, was LANKIEST, on a triple-word-score. 98 points, IIRC. Best game ever I played MILLION on the first turn, then later RESIDING and ORANGES, all of which cleared my rack and got me the 50 bonus points per play. Can’t remember how many points I got for each–I know the MILLION turn had a blank but I can’t remember if either of the other two did. ---
**Author:** ![Eissclam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/2acd7d/32.png) [@Eissclam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eissclam)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/10 "2001-01-10T18:21:02Z")
Hard to beat “Quetzal”. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/11 "2001-01-10T19:06:00Z")
I once had to resign after my opponent played the word EQUATORS, which, with the 50-point bonus for using all of her letters, got her about 100 points. The worst thing is, she got really smug about it. On my turn just before she played it, she announced that she had a killer word that I had no way to stop. And I couldn’t, either – there were two exposed E’s that she could use to build the word off of, so if I blocked one, she’d use the other. ---
**Author:** ![ReservoirDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@ReservoirDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReservoirDog)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/12 "2001-01-10T20:25:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Snooooopy \* > **On my turn just before she played it, she announced that she had a killer word that I had no way to stop. And I couldn’t, either –** That’s when you reach out and smash her right in the nose. I guarantee that will stop her. When the blood and/or tears starts to flow and she’s crying and screaming and maybe trying to flail at you with the one hand that isn’t cradling her dented face, you can just say, “Oh, you don’t want to play anymore?” and then declare yourself the winner by default. Nobody wants to play me much these days. That’s probably because I am undefeated. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/13 "2001-01-10T20:39:28Z")
The good word I’m most _bitter_ about is ‘uncrowns.’ The people I was playing with said it was ridiculous, and we didn’t have a dictionary. It’s in the dictionary. ‘Byzantine,’ huh? That’s pretty impressive - 9 letters, meaning you had to cross 2 other words, or build on an internal ‘root’ - the only one of which I see are ‘ant’ and ‘tin.’ Do you remember the context? ---
**Author:** ![KJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b2d939/32.png) [@KJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KJ)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/14 "2001-01-10T23:25:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CrankyAsAnOldMan \* > **She usually waxes my butt.** I won’t even ask… ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/15 "2001-01-11T00:30:20Z")
The highest scoring word I ever got (and I don’t get many- by sheer bad luck, I usually wind up with 7 vowels at a time) was JONQUILS. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/16 "2001-01-11T05:01:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bup \* > ‘Byzantine,’ huh? That’s pretty impressive - 9 letters, > meaning you had to cross 2 other words, or build on an > internal ‘root’ - the only one of which I see are ‘ant’ > and ‘tin.’ Do you remember the context It was built on the internal root “an”, actually–my opponent was strapped for something to play. It was across the bottom, and just happened to work out beautifully. BTW, I goofed on my math earlier for the score; DLS for the “Z” and TWS makes 96 points, I think (it’s been a while, and I’m not sure I remember all the point-values correctly). However, it did use up all my tiles, netting me a bonus. I think that brings it to 146. All I remember for sure was being shocked at how many points I earned with it–I didn’t count them up until after I had played the word. ---
**Author:** ![slackergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@slackergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slackergirl)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/17 "2001-01-11T05:27:24Z")
I used to be a game tester. I got stuck testing Email Scrabble for several months. I was emailing back and forth with two guys who sat in cubes next to me, in the beginning we averaged 12 games a day, towards the end it was closer to 15-20. I’m not sure I will ever be able to contemplate playing again without feeling ill. We played straight games for the first couple of weeks, then we started playing less appropriate-for-the-workplace words, then we devolved into phonetic scrabble - if they we understood what you meant, it was ok. My best word was uvula. I got to use it 6 times. I was also quite fond of quay. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/18 "2001-01-11T14:01:04Z")
All-time big Scrabble score for me: **Eroticized** , hitting a triple-word score and using the **Zed** I had previously played across another triple-word score. 167 points, IIRC. I then proceeded to do a Happy Scrabble Dance. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/19 "2001-01-11T16:42:00Z")
Certainly not the highest-scoring, but definately the best, Scrabble word I’ve used was “aa.” It’s one of the handful of two-letter words allowed, and refers to a type of lava. I used it when I was down to my last letter (an “a,” of course), and put it on a double-word score. This four-point word handed me a one-point victory–it doesn’t get much better than that. ---
**Author:** ![Phobos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Phobos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phobos)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314/20 "2001-01-11T17:16:55Z")
Not the BEST Scrabble word, but I once got something like 97 points for the simple word **Quiz** because it hit the triple word score (and a double letter?) and it played off other words. Obviously the best word would have to be at least 7 letters so you could get the 50 point bonus too. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scrabble-word/49314.md?page=2)