Highest-Scoring Seven-Letter Words

The seven-letter slot is the biggest thing on the board and the one that most often decides whether you earn the Wyld Pyle bonus. WyldTyle knows 21,240 seven-letter words, averaging 13.6 points. The sixty below all score 21 or more, topping out at 25.

The top sixty

The small number after each word is its WyldTyle score with no wild tiles. Letter values are on the scoring guide.

• BUYBACK25
• KEBBUCK25
• KEBBOCK24
• PAYBACK24
• WICKYUP24
• BIBCOCK23
• COPYBOY23
• DYBBUKS23
• KICKOFF23
• KICKUPS23
• KNUCKLY23
• KOLACKY23
• YUKKING23
• AKVAVIT22
• BACKUPS22
• BAKLAVA22
• BANGKOK22
• BAWCOCK22
• BLACKLY22
• BLAUBOK22
• BULKILY22
• BUMPILY22
• BUMPKIN22
• CRYBABY22
• KABUKIS22
• KNOBBLY22
• MOVABLY22
• MUCKILY22
• MUDPACK22
• MUGWUMP22
• MUKLUKS22
• PAVLOVA22
• PAWKILY22
• PAYABLY22
• PICKOFF22
• PICKUPS22
• PLAYBOY22
• PLUMBUM22
• PLUMPLY22
• POCKILY22
• PUMPKIN22
• SKYWALK22
• TOPKICK22
• UNBULKY22
• UPCHUCK22
• VIVIDLY22
• VIVIFIC22
• VOCABLY22
• VOLUBLY22
• VOUVRAY22
• WICKIUP22
• YAKKING22
• BACKBIT21
• BACKLOG21
• BALKILY21
• BIKEWAY21
• BIPACKS21
• BIVALVE21
• BIVOUAC21
• BLUFFLY21

The anatomy of a 25-point word

BUYBACK and KEBBUCK share the top spot. BUYBACK is B(4) U(3) Y(4) B(4) A(2) C(3) K(5): three four-point letters, a five, a three, and the two cheapest vowels. It needs two Bs, a Y, and a K to line up in the same word. Across a whole game you can expect roughly one B, one Y, and one K on average. Two Bs plus the other two is a once-in-many-games event.

That is the honest picture of this list. Words like PAYBACK, KICKOFF, and COPYBOY are wonderful when they happen, and they happen to players who keep the seven-letter slot flexible until the rare letters actually arrive. They do not happen to players who leave B _ Y _ _ _ _ open from turn two and pray.

How the seven-letter slot really gets filled

Seven-letter words average 2.6 vowels and are far more likely to end in a suffix than to be a compound. Of the twenty-one thousand seven-letter words, a very large share end in -S, -ED, -ER, -ES, or -ING. That is your lever.

• Claim the ending early. Placing an S in position seven, or E-D in positions six and seven, turns the slot into a six-letter word plus a suffix, and there are fourteen thousand six-letter words. An -ING ending turns it into a four-letter verb stem plus a suffix, and there are thousands of those.
• Keep the middle open. Positions three, four, and five are where the vowels go. Fill the ends first and let the middle take whatever vowels the dice bring.
• Expect three vowels. If your seven-letter word has one vowel by turn 10, it is in trouble. Call two-vowel rolls until it has at least two.

Points versus completion

A valid seven-letter word of ordinary letters scores 10 to 13 points. An invalid one scores zero and costs the 20-point bonus besides. The gap between a 13-point PLANTED and a 23-point KICKOFF is 10 points; the gap between PLANTED and nothing is 33. Play for the sure word, and take the big one if the letters fall your way. The Wyld Pyle guide goes deeper into that trade-off.