Words With Friends Solver

What the solver is actually doing

It generates every legal placement rather than searching a list of words. The dictionary is compiled into a graph where every shared prefix is stored once, and the solver walks that graph outward from the squares that touch a tile already on the board — the only places a new word can attach. For each of those it works out which letters could still form a valid word in the perpendicular direction, and never considers the rest.

The effect is that a full board is solved in a few milliseconds, in your browser, and the answer is complete: if a play exists, it is in the list.

What is different about Words With Friends

The rules are the same shape as any crossword game, but three numbers differ and they change which move wins.

• The centre square starts the game, it does not double it. An opening play scores its face value. In games that double the first word, the opening is worth chasing; here it usually is not.
• All seven tiles pays 35. Enough to decide most turns, not enough to justify a bingo that lands on plain squares when a triple word is available.
• The tile prices are their own. J and Z are ten, X is eight, and the letters most players think of as cheap — N, G, Y — are not priced the way they are elsewhere. The tile values page has the full table.

Reading the results

The list is sorted by raw score. Best play re-sorts by score plus the value of the tiles the move keeps back, which is a heuristic rather than true equity — it prefers a play that leaves you AEINRST over one that leaves you IIIUUUV, even at a few points less. Tap any move to preview it on the board before committing.

Explain score breaks a play into its parts: the main word, each perpendicular word it forms, which premium squares it covers, and the bingo bonus if it uses all seven. That breakdown is the reason a move ranks where it does.