This was originally published on the LK Forge blog, where the charts are interactive.
Words With Friends and Scrabble share a board concept but value letters differently. We scored all 172,835 words in the ENABLE open word list — not the TWL or CSW/SOWPODS Scrabble dictionaries, just the open list — against both letter-value tables. agammaglobulinemic scores 41 points in Words With Friends against 30 in Scrabble, an 11-point swing. Hunt the other direction and the biggest Scrabble edge you can find, on dysrhythmia, is only −3.
That ceiling isn't a coincidence. Only two letters — H and Y — are worth more in Scrabble than in WWF. Ten others (B, C, G, J, L, M, N, P, U, V) are worth more in WWF. So no word can lean on a Scrabble advantage the way it can lean on a WWF one. Across the full list, 8.02% of words (13,862) score identically either way.
The numbers
| ENABLE words scored | 172,835 |
| Score identically | 8.02% (13,862) |
| Mean absolute point gap | 2.528 |
| Widest WWF vs Scrabble swing | +11 / −3 |
How far scores diverge
Delta is a word's WWF score minus its Scrabble score. A delta of 0 means the two games agree; positive means WWF pays more; negative means Scrabble pays more. Across all 172,835 ENABLE words the mean absolute delta is 2.528 points, and the distribution is lopsided — it stretches out to +11 on the WWF side but stops cold at −3 on the Scrabble side.
Why the gap is lopsided
The asymmetry traces straight back to the two letter-value tables. Compare them letter by letter and B, C, G, J, L, M, N, P, U and V are all worth more in WWF than in standard Scrabble scoring — a long list of common consonants and vowels quietly worth extra points there. Going the other way, only two letters, H and Y, are worth more in Scrabble than in WWF. Every other letter is valued identically. That's why a word stuffed with B's, C's, and M's can pile up a double-digit WWF lead, while the best a word can do by leaning on H and Y is claw back three points.
That single structural fact explains the whole shape of the histogram above: a tall, wide right side (WWF-favoring deltas run from +1 all the way to +11) and a short, thin left side (Scrabble-favoring deltas can't go past −3 because H and Y are the only levers available, and most words only carry one or two of either).
The widest gaps
The 15 widest swings in each direction are all long, uncommon words — the kind of vocabulary that shows up only when a rack forces an unusual play, but a clean illustration of how far the tables can pull apart.
Where WWF scores highest over Scrabble:
| Word | WWF | Scrabble | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| agammaglobulinemic | 41 | 30 | +11 |
| agammaglobulinemia | 38 | 28 | +10 |
| agammaglobulinemias | 39 | 29 | +10 |
| circumambulating | 37 | 27 | +10 |
| counterinfluencing | 36 | 26 | +10 |
| immunoglobulin | 31 | 21 | +10 |
| immunoglobulins | 32 | 22 | +10 |
| macroglobulinemic | 38 | 28 | +10 |
| noncommunicating | 35 | 25 | +10 |
| uncommunicable | 34 | 24 | +10 |
| unconvincingness | 34 | 24 | +10 |
| unconvincingnesses | 36 | 26 | +10 |
| bejumbling | 33 | 24 | +9 |
| buckminsterfullerene | 42 | 33 | +9 |
| buckminsterfullerenes | 43 | 34 | +9 |
Where Scrabble scores highest over WWF:
| Word | WWF | Scrabble | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| dysrhythmia | 23 | 26 | −3 |
| dysrhythmias | 24 | 27 | −3 |
| hasheesh | 14 | 17 | −3 |
| hasheeshes | 16 | 19 | −3 |
| hashhead | 15 | 18 | −3 |
| hashheads | 16 | 19 | −3 |
| hashish | 13 | 16 | −3 |
| hashishes | 15 | 18 | −3 |
| heathery | 14 | 17 | −3 |
| heathy | 12 | 15 | −3 |
| hexahydrate | 25 | 28 | −3 |
| hexahydrates | 26 | 29 | −3 |
| heyday | 13 | 16 | −3 |
| heydays | 14 | 17 | −3 |
| heydey | 13 | 16 | −3 |
Notice the pattern in the Scrabble-favoring column: every entry carries at least one H or Y, and several stack more than one — dysrhythmia repeats both letters (two H's, two Y's) and hexahydrate repeats the H. That repetition isn't a coincidence given the letter-value gap above; it's the only route to a negative delta at all.
What this means at the board
In practice, this means a word finder that only scores Scrabble-style is quietly under-counting nearly every real Words With Friends play. Racks heavy in B, C, G, J, L, M, N, P, U, or V are worth chasing harder in WWF than a Scrabble instinct would suggest, while H and Y give a small but real edge back to Scrabble players comparing the same word. It's also why the same rack can produce a different "best play" depending on which game you're actually in — the ranking, not just the total, can flip.
That's the reason the Words With Friends Cheat shows both a WWF badge and a Scrabble badge on every result — sorting by the wrong one costs real points, and the two numbers on this page show exactly how much.
About the Scrabble and Words With Friends references
SCRABBLE and Words With Friends are referenced here only descriptively, as the source of their public letter-value tables — public reference points for comparison, not an official analysis by either trademark holder. Both are trademarks of their respective owners; this post is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by either.
Reproduce it yourself
The harness is public and deterministic — one script scores every word in the shipped ENABLE list (172,835 words) against both the Scrabble and WWF tile-value tables and records the delta.
WWF vs Scrabble scoring harness (public gist)
Every number on this page is printed by that one script. Run it yourself to check any figure above to the exact digit.
The interactive charts are on the LK Forge blog.
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