Word game · 1948

Scrabble

Seven tiles, a 15x15 grid and premium squares: build crossword words and squeeze every turn for points.

2–4 players
60–90 min
2.1 / 5 · Light

Set up the game

0 of 6 steps

Tick each step as you complete it.

1Put the board in the middle and drop all 100 tiles into the bag, mixing them well. Each player takes a rack. Keep the score pad and a pen within reach.
The board
Tokens
Bag
Score pad
2Decide who starts: every player draws one tile from the bag and shows it. The letter closest to A goes first, and the tiles go back into the bag. Ties are redrawn.
Tokens
Bag
3Deal seven tiles to each player and stand them on the rack, hidden from the others. The rest of the bag stays in the middle. You may reorder the tiles on your rack however you like.
Seven tiles on a rack
Bag
4Agree on the dictionary before you start. Every word must appear in it, apart from proper nouns, abbreviations, prefixes, suffixes and words with hyphens or apostrophes. Plurals and inflected forms are allowed.
Table from above
5The first word must cover the centre double-word square and use at least two tiles. From then on, every play must connect to letters already on the board.
Tiles and their values
6Keep score on the pad turn by turn. Also note the tiles left at the end, because each one subtracts its value from whoever is holding it.
Score pad
Tokens

What it is about

Scrabble is a word game won on the board, not in the dictionary. Long words impress, but the order of the premium squares, the parallel hooks and the tiles you leave on your rack weigh more on the score.

Every turn is a double decision: which word you play and which board you leave behind. A twelve-point play that opens a triple word can cost fifty the next turn. That is why strong players think about the gap they create, not only about the word they make.

The endgame changes the game. Once the bag is empty there are no new tiles and every letter spent counts twice. Whoever has looked after their rack and counted the tiles collects on the adjustment; whoever played carelessly is left holding expensive letters that subtract.

BGG page Official rulebook

Source note

The rulebook is a four-page scan covering setup, word formation, premiums, scoring, challenges and the endgame. It also includes the nine-tile and finish-line variants, which this guide does not detail.

Reglamento EN (Hasbro, 2003) · Reviewed: 24 Oct 2026