How to Play
Everything you need to know to start playing Nerd Words.
Welcome to Nerd Words!
Ready to flex your vocabulary muscles? In Nerd Words every letter counts — literally! Place words, score points, and outsmart your opponent with clever tile placement.
The Board
The standard game is played on a 19×19 board (or 21×21 Superboard) filled with multiplier squares:
Your Tiles
You have two tile racks with 7 tiles each:
Each tile shows a letter and its base point value. Orange tiles score double their blue counterpart. For example, a blue 'A' scores 1 point while an orange 'A' scores 2. A blue 'Z' scores 10 points while an orange 'Z' scores 20!
Each bag (orange and blue) contains 80 tiles:
The game starts with equal numbers of orange and blue tiles — but it won't stay that way!
When you play a word, all tiles in that word become the same colour:
Only when every tile you place is orange does the word stay orange. If even one placed tile is blue, the entire word — including any orange tiles already on the board — converts to blue.
This means orange tiles become rarer as the game progresses, making them increasingly valuable.
Strategic tip: Save your orange tiles for multiplier squares where they'll have maximum impact!
Blank Tiles
Blank tiles are wildcards — they can be any letter you choose! But there's a catch: they're worth zero points.
When you place a blank tile, you'll be asked to choose which letter it represents.
Playing a Turn
All tiles must be placed in a single row or column, and must connect to existing tiles on the board (except for the first word, which must cover the center star).
The Colour Shift
Playing a word using only tiles from your rack
All orange tiles? Word is orange. All blue tiles? Word is blue. Mixed colours? Word becomes blue.
For higher scores, play your orange tiles together to keep their higher values!
Adding tiles to an existing word on the board
Your tiles determine the final colour of the whole word — not the tiles already on the board.
All orange from your rack? Entire word becomes orange. All blue? Entire word becomes blue. Mixed? Entire word becomes blue.
Rack Bonus
Empty your racks for bonus points!
+50 Use all 7 tiles from one rack
+100 Use all 14 tiles (Perfect Play!)
Scoring
Each tile has a point value shown on the tile. Orange tiles are always worth double their blue equivalent.
When you place a tile on a multiplier square:
Multipliers only count when you place a new tile on them. Once used, they're just regular squares.
Multiplier Combos
The real points come from combining multipliers in a single word.
Word + Word stacking: If your word spans two word multipliers, they add together:
DW + DW = ×4 DW + TW = ×5 TW + TW = ×6Cross-Words
If you form multiple words in one turn by creating cross-words, you score all of them! Each word is scored separately with its own multipliers.
About Our Dictionary
Nerd Words currently uses a modified ENABLE word list containing over 250,000 words — and growing.
Our goal is to upgrade to a premium dictionary service with 500,000+ words and word definitions.
Here's our promise: The moment we can afford it, upgrading our dictionary is priority #1. Every ad you watch and every purchase you make brings us one step closer.
Until then, we'd love your help — use our support page to suggest or report a word.
Swapping Tiles
Stuck with bad tiles? You can swap them!
Your selected tiles go back into the bag and you draw fresh ones.
Winning the Game
The game ends when:
• One player uses all their tiles and the tile bag is empty — the winner also scores the total value of their opponent's remaining tiles!
• Both players pass three times in a row each (6 total passes) — final scores stand as played, no tile bonuses apply.
• A player resigns.
The player with the highest score wins! If scores are tied, it's a draw.
Now get out there and show off those word skills!