Reference Guide
Most casual players know that Q and Z are worth a lot and vowels aren't worth much, but the scoring system has more moving parts than that — and knowing all of them is often the difference between picking the word that looks biggest and the word that actually scores highest.
| Points | Letters |
|---|---|
| 1 | A, E, I, O, U, L, N, S, T, R |
| 2 | D, G |
| 3 | B, C, M, P |
| 4 | F, H, V, W, Y |
| 5 | K |
| 8 | J, X |
| 10 | Q, Z |
| 0 | Blank tiles (2 in the bag) |
A word's base score is just the sum of these values — before any bonus squares are applied. This is exactly what WordUntangle's score column shows next to each result, so you can compare two candidate words at a glance before deciding which to play.
The board has four types of premium squares, and they only apply the turn a tile is first placed on them — not on future turns once they're covered:
Worked example: playing QUIZ (Q=10, U=1, I=1, Z=10) is 22 points on its own. Land the Q on a Double Letter square and it becomes 20+1+1+10 = 32. Land the whole word on a Triple Word square instead and it's 22 × 3 = 66. The order matters too — letter bonuses are always applied before word bonuses, never after.
Using all 7 tiles from your rack in a single turn — called a "bingo" or "bonus play" — adds a flat 50 points on top of whatever the word itself scores, regardless of which letters were used. This is usually worth more than chasing a triple-word square, which is why strong players will often hold a rack that doesn't play anything this turn if it's one tile away from a bingo next turn.
When you have more than one valid option, run the math instead of defaulting to the longest word. A short word landing two letters on Double Letter squares can outscore a long word that only touches plain squares. This is the main reason WordUntangle sorts and scores every match instead of just listing words alphabetically — the highest-scoring option is rarely the most obvious-looking one.