Unless you’re playing golf or getting your blood pressure tested, a high score is the goal — especially in the board game Scrabble. While this letter-tile game is thought of as putting players’ vocab knowledge to the test, there are math and strategy skills involved, too. Amateurs usually break 100 points per game, while experts average somewhere between 330 and 450 points. But if you want to almost guarantee an immediate win, Scrabble strategists have proposed a word with an astronomically high point total in excess of 1,700 — assuming the board’s stars align in your favor.
“Oxyphenbutazone” is an anti-inflammatory drug that theoretically offers the strongest Scrabble play, though it’s never been played in an official tournament, as it requires an incredibly specific set of circumstances. Note that this word is 15 letters long, and under the official rules, only seven Scrabble tiles are allowed in a person’s control at any given time. Playing “OXYPHENBUTAZONE” not only necessitates drawing the right tiles, but also requires several perfectly placed words to be already on the board. This super scorer was calculated by Scrabble aficionado Dan Stock, who determined you’d net 1,778 points if you can pull it off.
According to Stock, you’ll need the tiles O, Y, P, B, A, Z, and E in your hand. Then you’ll need the 15 spaces running along one side of the board to be laid out as follows: (Blank), X, (Blank), (Blank), H, E, N, (Blank), U, T, (Blank), (Blank), O, N, and (Blank). This solution could be played along any side of the 15-by-15 Scrabble board, but to help visualize, let’s imagine those tiles and blank squares running from the top left corner to the bottom left corner (from your orientation). Then you’ll need seven specific words already placed adjacent (to the immediate right) to each blank: “PACIFYING,” “ELKS,” “REINTERVIEWED,” “RAINWASHING,” “MELIORATIVE,” “ARFS,” and “JACULATING.”
Place your tiles on the board in order and you’ll end up with “OXYPHENBUTAZONE” for 1,458 points on its own, thanks to the multiple word scores. Additionally, you’ll net 320 points from the 50-point bonus for using all your tiles, plus the points from the new words formed: “OPACIFYING,” “YELKS,” “PREINTERVIEWED,” “BRAINWASHING,” “AMELIORATIVE,” “ZARFS,” and “EJACULATING.”
Stock’s theory has been updated, with two players recently discovering an option that’ll net you 1,784 points. Those extra six points come from an X in your hand instead of a Y, and then playing that X next to an E and D on the board for the new word “XED.” Another proposed theory involves playing an N on the word “ARROWING” for a total of 1,786 points. There are also rumors of a 2,152-point play, using the word “SESQUIOXYDIZING,” though that’s entirely theoretical as well and has never been used in official play. All these options prove the highest-scoring Scrabble word is a moving target — will you be able to rack up some high scores on holiday game nights?
