How to Unscramble Words With Blank Tiles and Wildcards

A blank tile is worth zero points on its own, yet strong Scrabble players rate it as the most valuable tile in the bag. The reason is flexibility: a blank can become any letter, which turns an awkward rack into a playable one and often turns a good rack into a 50-point bingo. This guide covers how to search for words with blanks, both in your head and with our word unscrambler.

How to enter a blank in our tool

Type a question mark ? wherever you have a blank. For example, the rack RETAIN? tells the unscrambler you have R, E, T, A, I, N plus one wildcard. You can use up to two question marks, matching the two blanks in a standard Scrabble or Words With Friends set.

Results that use a blank still show the full word, so you can see which letter the blank became.

What one blank can do

Take the six letters R, E, T, A, I, N. On their own, they make RETAIN, RETINA and a few shorter words. Add one blank and the number of seven-letter words explodes. In our dictionary, RETAIN plus one more letter makes a seven-letter word with 20 different extra letters:

Add	Seven-letter words (examples)
C	CERTAIN, CREATIN, NACRITE
D	DETRAIN, TRAINED
E	TRAINEE, RETINAE
G	GRANITE, INGRATE, TEARING, TANGIER
H	HAIRNET, INEARTH
K	KERATIN
L	ENTRAIL, LATRINE, RELIANT, RETINAL
M	MINARET, RAIMENT
P	PAINTER, PERTAIN, REPAINT
R	TERRAIN, TRAINER, RETRAIN
S	NASTIER, RETAINS, RETINAS, STAINER
T	NITRATE, ITERANT
U	URINATE, TAURINE, RUINATE
W	TINWARE, TAWNIER

That's why "hold the blank for a bingo" is standard advice. With a strong six-letter base, a blank almost guarantees a seven-letter play.

Which letters to try first

If you're doing it by hand, don't run through A to Z. Try the letters that most often complete words, roughly in this order:

S: makes plurals and verb forms (TRAIN to TRAINS).
E: completes endings like -ER and -ED.
D and R: form -ED and -ER.
A, I, O: fill vowel gaps in consonant-heavy racks.
T, N, L: common in stems like -TION and -ENT.
G: completes -ING.

If none of those works, the rack probably isn't a bingo, and you should consider a shorter play.

When not to use a blank

A blank is best saved for a big score. Spending it to make a 12-point play is usually a mistake. As a rough guide used by many club players, a blank should earn you around 25 to 30 extra points compared with your best play without it. If it doesn't, keep it.

Exceptions:

Late in the game, when there may not be another turn to use it.
Blocking, when your opponent is threatening a huge play and the blank is the only way to close the spot.
Getting rid of a terrible rack, such as five consonants, where the blank lets you dump several awkward tiles at once.

Two blanks: handle with care

With two blanks, nearly any rack has a bingo. The temptation is to play the first one you find, but take a moment to check scoring. Placing the real, high-value letters on premium squares (and the blanks, worth zero, elsewhere) can be worth 20 points or more. Our Scrabble word finder sorts results by score so you can compare options quickly.

Wildcards in other puzzles

The same thinking applies outside Scrabble:

Crosswords: if you know some letters, use the word finder with pattern filters (for example, starts with "GR", length 7).
Wordle: unknown positions act like wildcards. Combine "contains" and "starts with" filters to narrow your guesses.
Words With Friends: blanks work the same way, but the 35-point bingo bonus is lower than Scrabble's 50, which slightly lowers a blank's value. See our comparison of the two games.

Practice drill

Pick a common six-letter base like SATIRE, RETAIN or TISANE. Without looking anything up, list every letter that turns it into a seven-letter word. Then type the base plus a ? into the unscrambler and check. Most players find half on their first attempt and nearly all of them after a few weeks of practice.