science

Scrabble letter distributions

Scrabble letter distributions is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Scrabble letter distributions rather than just read about it. In short: Editions of the word board game Scrabble in different languages have differing letter distributions of the tiles, because the frequency of each letter of the alphabet is different for every language. As a general rule, the rarer the letter, the more points it is worth.

Key takeaways

Scrabble letter distributions belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Scrabble letter distributions to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Scrabble letter distributions from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Editions of the word board game Scrabble in different languages have differing letter distributions of the tiles, because the frequency of each letter of the alphabet is different for every language. As a general rule, the rarer the letter, the more points it is worth. Most languages use sets of 100 tiles, since the original distribution of ninety-eight tiles was later augmented with two blank tiles. In tournament play, while it is acceptable to pause the game to count the tiles remaining in the game, it is not acceptable to mention how many tiles are remaining at any time. Several online tools exist for counting tiles during friendly play.

Official editions Scrabble editions listed in this section are officially licensed by Hasbro (for North America) or Mattel (for the rest of the world).

English (original)

English-language editions of Scrabble contain 100 letter tiles, in the following distribution:

2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points) 1 point: E ×12, A ×9, I ×9, O ×8, N ×6, R ×6, T ×6, L ×4, S ×4, U ×4 2 points: D ×4, G ×3 3 points: B ×2, C ×2, M ×2, P ×2 4 points: F ×2, H ×2, V ×2, W ×2, Y ×2 5 points: K ×1 8 points: J ×1, X ×1 10 points: Q ×1, Z ×1 The total number of points is 187. Diacritical marks (such as "ñ" in words borrowed from Spanish) are ignored. When Alfred Butts invented the game, he initially experimented with different distributions of letters. A popular story claims that Butts created an elaborate chart by studying the front page of The New York Times to create his final choice of letter distributions. In 2004, Super Scrabble was launched. For international distribution outside the United States and Canada, and under license from Mattel, the game is manufactured by Leisure Tends' Tinderbox Games; and, for distribution within the United States and Canada, under license from Hasbro, the game is manufactured by Winning Moves. This set is composed of 200 tiles:

4 blank tiles (scoring 0 points) 1 point: E ×24, A ×16, O ×15, T ×15, I ×13, N ×13, R ×13, S ×10, L ×7, U ×7 2 points: D ×8, G ×5 3 points: C ×6, M ×6, B ×4, P ×4 4 points: H ×5, F ×4, W ×4, Y ×4, V ×3 5 points: K ×2 8 points: J ×2, X ×2 10 points: Q ×2, Z ×2 Super Scrabble contains more letters that are overlined and fewer letters that are underlined than would be obtained by combining two standard English sets.

Afrikaans

The Afrikaans editions use these 102 tiles:

2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points) 1 point: E ×16, A ×9, I ×8, N ×8, D ×6, O ×6, R ×6, S ×6, T ×6 2 points: G ×4, H ×3, L ×3 3 points: K ×3, W ×3 4 points: M ×2, U ×2, Y ×2 5 points: P ×2, V ×2 8 points: B ×1, F ×1 10 points: J ×1

Circa 1953, the Production and Marketing Company had provided license to the private company Leon Toys of Johannesburg, South Africa in the manufacture and production of Scrabble. Alongside the English language version of Scrabble the company also produced the first Afrikaans language version of the game under the name Krabbel, an Afrikaans translation of "Scrabble". This language set of the game had the following 100 tiles:

2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points) 1 point: E ×15, A ×9, I ×8, N ×7, O ×6, S ×6, T ×6, R ×5, L ×4, U ×2 2 points: D ×6, G ×4 3 points: B ×2, P ×2, M ×1 4 points: H ×3, F ×2, V ×2, W ×2, Y ×2 5 points: K ×3 8 points: J ×1 Absent in both the original and standard set of Afrikaans are the letters C, Q, X, and Z. The infrequent X and Z may still be represented by the use of a blank, yet the letters C and Q, not used in Afrikaans but only in a few loanwords, may not be. Diacritical marks are ignored.

Arabic

Arabic-language editions use the following 100 tiles:

2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points) 1 point: ﺍ‎ ×8, ﻝ‎ ×4, ﺝ‎ ×4, ﺡ‎ ×3, ﺥ‎ ×3, ﻡ‎ ×3, ﻥ‎ ×3, ﻩ‎ ×3, ﻭ‎ ×3, ي‎ ×3 2 points: ﺏ‎ ×4, ﺕ‎ ×4, ﺭ‎ ×3, ﺩ‎ ×3, ﺱ‎ ×3, ﺙ‎ ×3, 3 points: ﻑ‎ ×3, ﻕ‎ ×3, ﺫ‎ ×3, ﺵ‎ ×3, ﺯ‎ ×3 4 points: ﺹ‎ ×3, ﺽ‎ ×3, ﻉ‎ ×3, ﻙ‎ ×3, ﻁ‎ ×2, 5 points: ﻅ‎ ×2 6 points: ﺉ‎ ×2 8 points: ﻍ‎ ×2, ﺀ‎ ×2 10 points: ﺃ‎ ×2, ﺅ‎ ×2, Although Arabic letters have up to four forms, Scrabble tiles use the isolated form. In some sets, as found in some Arabic-based alphabets that are not the standard modern Arabic, a dotless yeh (alif maqsura) may be used ى‎, and for the letter he the final form ‎ھ (heh doachashmee) may appear, as it is in some Arabic-based alphabets, as in Urdu, the isolated form of the letter. The pattern of using the isolated forms in composing words is also found in Arabic crosswords and in the Scrabble3D Persian Scrabble set and is one of the rare situations when Arabic letters are not connected to each other. The ligature لا is played as two individual tiles: ل and ا.

Bulgarian

Bulgarian-language Scrabble sets, which use Cyrillic letters, use the following 102 tiles:

2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points) 1 point: А ×9, О ×9, Е ×8, И ×8, Т ×5, Н ×4, П ×4, Р ×4, С ×4 2 points: В ×4, Д ×4, М ×4, Б ×3, К ×3, Л ×3 3 points: Г ×3, Ъ ×2 4 points: Ж ×2, З ×2 5 points: У ×3, Ч ×2, Я ×2, Й ×1, Х ×1 8 points: Ц ×1, Ш ×1, Ю ×1 10 points: Ф ×1, Щ ×1, Ь ×1

Catalan

Catalan-language editions use these 100 tiles:

2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points) 1 point: E ×13, A ×12, I ×8, R ×8, S ×8, N ×6, O ×5, T ×5, L ×4, U ×4 2 points: C ×3, D ×3, M ×3 3 points: B ×2, G ×2, P ×2 4 points: F ×1, V ×1 8 points: H ×1, J ×1, Q ×1, Z ×1 10 points: Ç ×1, L·L ×1, NY ×1, X ×1 The Catalan edition has special tiles for the C with cedilla Ç (ce trencada), the ligature L·L representing the geminated L (ela geminada), as well as the digraph NY. K, W, and Y are absent because they are only used in loanwords or, for Y, the digraph NY. Blanks cannot be used to represent K, W, or Y, which means that playing an N tile followed by a blank tile to form the digraph NY is not allowed, and loanwords containing K and W are simply not played. Official rules treat the Q tile as just one letter, but usually Catalan players use the Q tile like the QU digraph and all Catalan Scrabble Clubs use this de facto rule. While Ç is a separate tile, other diacritic marks are ignored. There is a Catalan Scrabble clone which uses the same 21×21 board as Super Scrabble. It includes the following 200 tiles, with the Q tile replaced with the QU digraph, because Q in Catalan is never without a U after it, and with two of the special tiles, Ç and L·L, increased in value:

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Scrabble letter distributions

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Scrabble letter distributions claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Scrabble letter distributions before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Scrabble letter distributions ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Scrabble letter distributions

In research: Scrabble letter distributions appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Scrabble letter distributions in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Scrabble letter distributions is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Quantitative linguistics, Scrabble, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Scrabble letter distributions outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Scrabble letter distributions in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Scrabble letter distributions means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Scrabble letter distributions out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Scrabble letter distributions in simple terms?

Why does Scrabble letter distributions matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Scrabble letter distributions?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Scrabble letter distributions.