How to Use a Blank Tile in Scrabble

Scrabble is a board game that many people enjoy. Play it at home with friends and family, online with other players or in tournaments. There are techniques to playing and winning Scrabble. The blank tiles are important, and using them effectively could mean the difference between winning and losing.

Instructions

1. Use a blank tile to represent any letter that you wish. There are no limitations to this. For example, the Scrabble game has 2 "B" tiles. Even if they are gone, you can make your blank tile a "B." If you are lucky, you might draw both blank tiles during your game.

2. Remember which letters the blank tiles represent after a player has placed them. Since there are only 2 blank tiles available, it won't be difficult to remember the letter represented by each.

3. Recall that after a player names and plays a blank tile, players cannot change the letter for their own benefit. For example, if you use a blank tile to represent "Z" in the word zoo, your opponent cannot add an "N" to the end and claim the "Z" is now an "L" to make the word loon. However, they could add an "M" at the end and take points for the two "O" tiles and the "M" tile for the word zoom.

4. Tally your score after making a word with a blank tile. A blank tile has no value at all. However, if you place a blank tile on a double or triple word score space when making a word, you may still double or triple the score from the rest of the tiles in your word.

Tips & Warnings

• A good place to use a blank tile is to make a previously played high scoring word plural by naming the blank tile as an "S" if possible.

• Use a blank tile to replace a low scoring letter needed to complete a long word with high scoring tiles such as "Q", "X" or "Z."