How to Play Upwords
Upwords is a word game with one idea that changes everything: you can stack letters on top of letters already on the board. Change CAT into COT by dropping an O onto the A, and the word is yours.
You play against the computer on a ten by ten board with a rack of seven tiles, and the score comes from height rather than letter values.
Play UpwordsHow to play
- Drag tiles from your rack onto the board, or tap a tile and then tap a square.
- All the tiles you place in one turn have to go in the same row or the same column.
- The first word has to cover the centre square, and after that every word has to touch what is already there.
- You can stack on existing letters, up to five tiles high, as long as the result is a real word.
- Submit when you are happy. Anything that is not a word is refused and your tiles stay where they are.
How scoring works
Every square in a word scores the height of its stack. A flat three letter word is worth three. Put one tile on top of each letter and the same word is worth six.
That makes height more valuable than rare letters, which is the opposite instinct to Scrabble. A quiet word that raises three stacks beats a clever word laid flat.
Tips
Vowel swaps are the cheapest points on the board. Turning BAT into BUT or BOT scores the whole word again for one tile.
Watch the five high limit. A tall stack is worth a lot but it also closes that square for good, so do not wall yourself out of the middle.
Frequently asked questions
How is Upwords different from Scrabble?
You can stack tiles on top of letters already played, and you score the height of each stack rather than the value of each letter.
How high can a stack go?
Five tiles. After that the square is closed.
Who checks the words?
A full English dictionary on the server, so obscure but real words are accepted and invented ones are not.