Scrabble in brief
Scrabble was invented by Alfred Mosher Butts, an American architect, who developed it under the name Criss-Crosswords in 1938. James Brunot bought the manufacturing rights in 1948, simplified the rules and renamed the game Scrabble.
The rules fit in a few lines. Each player draws seven tiles onto a rack, then forms words on a 15 × 15 board, crossing words already played. Every letter has a value, some squares double or triple a letter or a word, and playing all seven tiles at once earns a 50-point bonus, known in English as a bingo and in French simply as "un scrabble".
What Scrabble lovers enjoy
The pleasure of Scrabble comes from several moves, which online word games tend to offer separately:
- Untangling a rack: spotting a word in seven letters in no particular order.
- Going for the long word: a seven- or eight-letter word can turn a game around.
- Vocabulary: rare words, hooks, prefixes that rescue a turn.
- Fair comparison: in clubs, the Duplicate format gives every player the same draw, which removes luck.
No SIWA game reproduces the board, letter values or premium squares. Each one keeps one or two of these moves, in a short daily game. Note that SIWA's word games are in French.
Comparison: what each SIWA game shares with Scrabble
| SIWA game | In common with Scrabble | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Melimelo | Finding a word in jumbled letters | Every letter is used, a clue helps |
| Relio | Points based on word length | Grid of neighbouring letters, 90-second timer |
| Prefixo | Vocabulary and extensions | Five words with one prefix, from definitions |
| Motamo | Words hooking onto each other | A chain guided by definitions |
Melimelo and Relio: the rack and the score
Melimelo is the rack exercise without the luck of the draw. Each grid shows five sets of scrambled letters, one per French word of 5 to 8 letters, with a short clue for each. You reorder the letters and validate word by word; a wrong guess shows which letters are already in the right place. Only the expected word is accepted, even if another anagram exists, and a joker reveals a letter when you are stuck.
The difference from Scrabble is clear: all the letters in a set form a single word, and there are no letter values and no board. On the other hand, the eye that spots endings (-TION, -EUR, -AGE) and common letter groups is exactly that of a Scrabble player.
Relio speaks to those who count their points. A letter grid, 5 × 5 by default, and 90 seconds on the clock: link neighbouring cells, in all eight directions and without reusing a cell, to form French words of at least three letters. The scoring rewards length: 1 point for 3 letters, 2 for 4, 4 for 5, 7 for 6, 11 for 7 and 15 points from 8 letters.
Prefixo and Motamo: vocabulary
Prefixo is for lovers of extensions. A prefix appears, such as RE, SUR or ANTI, with five short definitions; each word to find starts with that prefix and you know its letter count. It is good training for word families, a useful reflex in front of a board.
Motamo has you chain five words: each starts with the last letter of the previous one, from definitions. It is not played on a grid, but it echoes the Scrabble constraint where every word must lean on a letter already in place.
For more vocabulary ideas, our guide to the daily word game presents all of SIWA's word games.
A short game every day
A game of Scrabble lasts an hour or more; SIWA games take a few minutes. Each grid changes at midnight, in your local time, and it is the same for everyone: the daily leaderboard plays a role similar to the shared draw in Duplicate.
Everything is free and plays in the browser, with nothing to download and no sign-up. A possible routine: Melimelo to warm up, Relio for points, then Prefixo or Motamo for vocabulary.