

The length and placement decide which bonus squares are immediately open for your opponent. This is a chance to strategize from the start. You can put any word with up to 5 letters down on the first move as long as it includes the center star tile. If you’re the first player, start strong with your first word. Study the list so you have a mental word bank to draw from the next time you play scrabble. Similar to the Q without U words, make a list of X, J, and Z words at varying lengths. There are thousands of words with these letters at various lengths, so be sure to study up. Both X and J will earn you 8 points each, and Z will earn 10. Prepare yourself to strategize around the highest scoring tiles. List of Q Words without U Bolster Your Vocabulary with Words Including X, Z, and J Even better, plan for the Q to be a double or triple letter square and blow away your opponent with one short word. Make a list of these words and work to memorize them. There are dozens of playable words that don’t require the U, such as Qaid, Cinq, Qabalah, Qat, Qaf, Qi, and Qin. Most players get stuck with a Q tile because they don’t have a U to go along with it.

Q is the tile with the highest point value in the entire game along with Z. It also gives you more jumping-off points and inspiration for new words, too. This is a great way to extend a word that already exists on the board. You may get a word with a huge score just by adding -ED, -ES, -OR, after a word or DIS-, AUTO-, IM-, IN- before a word that is already on the board. This will give you visual cues you may not have noticed before while searching the board for your next move. Notice the common prefixes and suffixes on your tiles and rearrange them.
