Every week we pull the real moves straight from the game’s database and pick out the ones worth talking about. This week, two very different kinds of play made the cut: the biggest score and the longest word. Both from English games, both on the classic board, and neither used a power-up – just the rack and the board.
COMBINED for 64 points – the bingo of the week
Seven tiles down in a single move. The player threaded C-M-B-I-N-E-D around an O that was already on the board (from FELONIES), making COMBINED. The word itself is worth 14 points – the other 50 come from the bingo bonus you get for emptying your rack in one go. That’s what makes bingos the most valuable move in the game: an ordinary-looking word suddenly counts for more than most players score in three turns.
RELEASING – nine letters, three tiles
The longest English word of the week is a lesson in the other kind of skill: seeing what’s already there. EASING was sitting on the board, and the player dropped just three tiles – R, E and L – in front of it to make RELEASING. Nine letters for 11 points. Long doesn’t always mean big, but it’s a neat piece of board-reading, and it opened up a whole new lane for the rest of the game.
How the scoring works
- Each letter has a value (A, E, I, L, N, O, R, S and T are worth 1; Q and Z are worth 9). A word scores the sum of its letters, multiplied by any bonus squares you land on.
- Use all seven tiles in one move and you get a 50-point bingo bonus on top.
- Every word is checked against the game’s dictionary – Powered by data from Oxford Languages.
Think you can beat 64? UniWords is free on iOS, Android and in your browser at play.uniwords.io – no ads, no paywall.
