10 Tips to Score Higher in Words With Friends
Want to crush your opponents in Words With Friends? These 10 proven tips will help you score more points, block your rivals, and use every tile wisely.
10 Tips to Score Higher in Words With Friends
Words With Friends looks simple on the surface — you place tiles, make words, earn points. But behind that casual exterior is a deep strategic game that rewards preparation and board awareness as much as a big vocabulary.
Whether you’re brand new or just tired of losing to that one friend who always seems to win, these ten tips will sharpen your game immediately.
1. Always Hunt for the Triple Word Score
The board has Triple Word Score (TWS) squares at the edges and corners. Landing a word — even a short one — on a TWS can outscore a long word played in the center of the board. Before placing any word, scan for these red squares and ask whether your current play blocks or uses one.
A three-letter word on a triple word square is almost always better than a six-letter word in the middle of the board.
2. Learn the Two-Letter Words
Two-letter words are the single most important thing to memorize for Words With Friends. Words like AX, ZA, QI, OX, XI, JO, XU, and KI allow you to play parallel to existing words, effectively scoring two words at once while extending your footprint on the board.
Most players ignore these and leave enormous points on the table every game.
3. Control the Corners
The four corner areas of the board contain the highest-value squares. Experienced players work to control access to those corners by building toward them early. Conversely, if your opponent is reaching toward a corner, it’s worth sacrificing a few points to block them — the points they’d score on a TWS are far more costly than missing one of your own plays.
4. Save Your S Tiles
It is tempting to play an S just to pluralize a word and score a few extra points. Resist this. An S tile is one of the most flexible tiles in the game because it can pluralize any noun or extend most verbs. Hold it until it can be played somewhere that opens a premium square or creates a parallel word combo that earns a massive bonus.
5. Use the Word Unscrambler When You’re Stuck
Everyone gets stuck. When you’re staring at a rack of letters and nothing is coming to you, a word unscrambler tool lets you input your tiles and instantly see every valid word you can form. This is legal in casual play and can teach you new words you’ll remember for future games.
Try our free word unscrambler →
6. Balance Your Rack
A rack full of vowels or a rack full of consonants is a nightmare. After each play, try to exchange tiles in a way that keeps a healthy balance — roughly 3 vowels to 4 consonants is a good target. A balanced rack gives you the most possible combinations on your next turn.
If you have five or six vowels, consider sacrificing a turn to swap several of them rather than playing a low-scoring word just to use them.
7. Think About Your Next Move, Not Just This One
Amateur players focus entirely on the highest-scoring word they can play right now. Better players think one move ahead: does this play open up a premium square for my opponent? Does it block their likely paths? Does it leave me with flexible tiles for my next turn?
The best move is often not the highest-scoring one in isolation — it’s the one that maximizes your score over two or three turns.
8. Don’t Ignore Short Words When the Board Gets Crowded
Late in the game, the board fills up and long words become hard to place. This is when short words — even two and three-letter words — become your best friends. Knowing valid two-letter words and rare three-letter words becomes especially valuable here, as you can often squeeze plays into tiny gaps for solid point totals.
9. Track the Tiles
Words With Friends uses a fixed tile distribution. As the game progresses and more tiles are played, you can roughly figure out what tiles remain in the bag and what your opponent might be holding. If both Z tiles are on the board already, your opponent cannot be saving a Z play. This kind of tracking helps you assess risk and plan accordingly.
10. Use Your Blank Wisely
Blank tiles are the most powerful tiles in the game because they can represent any letter. Many players rush to play them whenever they allow a word to be formed. Don’t. Save the blank tile until it gives you access to a Triple Word Score or allows a bingo (using all seven tiles at once for a 35-point bonus). A blank used carelessly on a modest play is one of the biggest wasted opportunities in Words With Friends.
Quick Reference: High-Value Short Words to Memorize
| Word | Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ZA | 11 | Slang for pizza, valid in WWF |
| QI | 11 | Life force in Chinese philosophy |
| OX | 9 | An adult bovine |
| XI | 9 | Greek letter |
| XU | 9 | Vietnamese currency unit |
| JO | 9 | Scottish word for sweetheart |
| AX | 9 | Tool for chopping |
| KA | 7 | Ancient Egyptian word for spirit |
See Also
- Best 2-letter words for word games
- How to unscramble letters fast
- 25 unusual 3-letter words for Scrabble
- Use our free Word Unscrambler tool
Published June 2024 | Word Games Guide