Did you know that there are tons of unique board games with words out there? Yes, there’s Scrabble (we have that on this list too), but there’s a ton of others that are fun, new and exciting…
Let’s check out some of these games…
Scrabble
- Using tiles from their hands, players try to spell out long words on the board.
- Words must connect with others on the board, which makes the game more difficult, but allows players to use some of the letters that have already been played.
- There are certain spots on the board that will give players bonuses when they player their words touching those spots.
- Play continues until players are no longer able to play letters or until the letters all run out, whichever comes first.
- Each letter has a point value, so players must add up their points every time they play a word in able to determine their final score.
Word on the Street
- Players compete against each other to capture letter tiles by choosing words that contain the letters that they want and then pulling them off of the board before their opponents can pull them back.
- Teams only have a certain amount of time to be able to find the word that they are looking for on the board, make sure that it fits into the category for the round, and then move the letter toward them.
- When the timer goes off, then the other team has an opportunity to draw a card, name a word, and try to move the letters back to their side of the board.
- The first team who is able to capture 8 tiles wins.
Upwords
- This game is similar to Scrabble, in that players compete to build words using the letters that they have in their hand, but instead of keeping the game flat, players can build on top of other letters already played.
- Players earn points for placing letters and for creating tall stacks of letters, which gives incentive to try to think about how to change current words on the board.
- Unlike Scrabble, where an opponent can inadvertently block another player’s move, in Upwords, players can simply play on top of what the opponent played.
- The player who has the most points when the letters are all used is the winner.
Wordsearch!
- Before playing, players must rotate the game board, which will cause the letters on the board to move and to switch position.
- All players then work at the same time to try to find the hidden word on the board.
- Words can be vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and even backwards, but will always be straight.
- As players find words, then they cover it with their colored markers.
- When players find words that cross their opponent’s, they can remove one of the colored markers and replace it with their own, which causes the scoring to constantly change and makes players work harder to get their points back.
Dabble
- Between 2 and 4 players are given 20 letter tiles each and then will use those tiles in a race to spell 5 words before their opponents can.
- Players each have their own letter holder that allows them to move their tiles and create words without their opponents seeing what they are working on, and when they are done, they simply turn it around to share.
- Players can trade out letters as necessary to make words, but this will slow them down, and speed is important.
- All players count the points from their letter tiles when determining their overall score for the round, but the player who makes 5 words first adds 25 points to their final score.
Wordy Word!
- During each round, players split into teams and compete to create 5 words using the letters that were revealed on the game dice.
- While one team is trying to create 5 words, the other team is trying to guess what they are going to make.
- The team making words needs to work as quickly as possible so that the other team can’t guess the words first, as this will cause them to get the points for the game.
- As teams create words, they move their team pawn around the gameboard to try to be the first team to make it all of the way around and win the game.
Sight Words Pizza
- Young children who need to learn sight words will love playing this fun game that helps with retention and comprehension.
- Players earn points as they put different toppings on their pizzas.
- In addition to getting points from making their pizza, players can also earn points through the completion of various challenges.
- While the challenges are a little difficult, they are fun.
- The faster that players are able to identify different sight words, the faster they are able to add those toppings to their pizzas.
- The player who has the most points from toppings and challenges at the end of the game is the winner.
Wordsmithery
- Players take turns drawing cards with esoteric words printed on them, and they read the word to their opponent.
- When a player is able to guess the meaning of the word correctly on the first guess without any help, then they earn 2 points.
- If the player doesn’t know the definition right away, then 3 options are read for them to choose from.
- Players who need the 3 options read will get 1 point if they guess the meaning correctly.
- The first player who makes it to 10 points is the winner.
- Players take turns reading the card and the definitions on it, which gives both players equal chances to guess the correct definition.
Wordoku
- Players race to create words in their personal 4×4 grid by using tiles that have both symbols and letters printed on them.
- By using letters, players can make the words that they need to win, but the symbol tiles need to be incorporated correctly in order to boost the score, which means that players need to have a strategy for how they will incorporate the symbol tiles.
- There are 3 rounds in the game and players earn awards as they not only score the most points in the round, but also if they are able to beat their own high score.
- The player who has the most award tokens when all 3 rounds are over is the winner.
Candygrams
- Not only an anagram game, Candygrams is also a game where players must have a strategy so that they create large words using the correctly colors.
- Players build their individual crossword by carefully connecting the words that they play in each round.
- During each round players must match the selected color combo shown on the dice, which will limit what letters can be used during play.
- Players have a set amount of letters that they can use, and the first player to use all of their letters in the game is the winner.
- There are 2 levels of play: standard, which is more relaxed and is great for players with varying skill levels, and express, which is faster and more frenzied.
Super Big Boggle
- The object of the game is to find as many words as possible in the random letters that make up the grid.
- Players each have a sheet of paper and a pen and start the game by dropping letter cubes into the lid, putting the grid on the lid, turning it all over, and shaking until the letters fall into place.
- After the lid is removed, then the timer starts, and players must search for words that have at least 4 letters.
- Letters must be adjoining in order to count as a part of a word, but they don’t have to be in a straight line.
- Letters can’t be used more than once in the same word.
Words with Friends
- In this game, players take turns adding letters to the board in an effort to create words vertically or horizontally.
- Players must follow the rules as to where they can place their letter tiles to ensure that they don’t accidentally make an illegal word.
- By placing tiles to form more than one word, players can easily get higher scores.
- Players add up the value of the letters that they have played, count up any bonuses that they earned when placing letters on a specific square, and can even get bonuses for using all of their letters at once.
- While similar to Scrabble, the board is very different and has different values on the bonus squares.
Stack Spell
- In the 3×3 grid, players must try to spell words using the 9 letters.
- All words must be made from letters that are touching in the correct order and can’t skip letters that are in the way.
- While players are looking for words, they need to consider how many tiles they will be able to add to their stack, as the player who has the highest stack at the end of the game is the winner.
- There are bonus tiles included in the game that players need to include in their stacks to make them taller, which will help them earn more points.
Unspeakable Words
- Players are given letters to hold in their hands that will then be used to create words during the game.
- Every word that players make will have a different value, depending on how many angles are in the letters of the word.
- While players can try to earn more points creating bigger words, these can be tricky to create, as the player must also roll a number on the dice that is higher than the value of the word, or they will lose one of the pawns.
- Players need to not only have pawns at the end of the game to be able to win, but they must also have the highest score.