How Big is a Scrabble Tile? (with Drawings)

Scrabble, unlike Monopoly, is a board game that doesn’t instill frustration and anger in the players. People can play a Scrabble match and still remain friends when the game has come to an end. Scrabble is so popular that there probably isn’t any information about the game you don’t know apart from the size of a Scrabble tile.

A Scrabble tile measures 19 × 19 millimeters or roughly 0.75 × 0.75 inches and has a thickness of 4 millimeters (0.16 inches), regardless of the letter. The tile is marginally smaller than the squares on a Scrabble board.

If you’d like to learn more about the dimensions of all Scrabble pieces, you’ve come to the right place. In the following sections, I’ll describe the measurements of the Scrabble tiles, the board, the tile rack, and much more in the following sections.

Scrabble Measurements

While we’re still on the subject of Scrabble measurements, let’s take a quick look at the different components used in a game of Scrabble.

Scrabble Tile

Scrabble tiles are the pieces playing pieces used in a game of Scrabble to spell words on the Scrabble board. The tiles are square in shape and have 19-millimeter sides with a thickness of about 4 millimeters (0.75 × 0.75 × 0.16 inches).

In the Deluxe Edition of Scrabble, the tiles will retain their 19 × 19-millimeter sides, but some of the tiles will measure only 2 millimeters (0.08 inches) thick.

Scrabble Board

The game of Scrabble is played on a board with a 15 × 15-square grid, with each square measuring 1 inch. In total, there are 225 squares to accommodate long words. Including the margins on all four sides, a Scrabble board will roughly measure 17 inches wide and 24 inches long.

Scrabble Tile Rack

The Scrabble tile rack is the wooden piece that players use to keep track of their tiles. The rack can accommodate up to seven letters at a time.

The dimensions of a Scrabble tile rack are about 175 millimeters (6.9 inches) wide, 25 millimeters (1 inch) tall, and it has a bottom portion to keep the tiles in place that measures about 2 millimeters (0.7 inches).

How Many Scrabble Tiles Are There?

In a complete bag of Scrabble tiles, you will receive 100 tiles in total. 98 of the tiles will have a single letter and value, while 2 of them are blanks and can be used as wildcards—i.e., a substitute for any letter of the alphabet.

What Is the Letter Distribution of Scrabble Tiles?

The letter distribution refers to how many tiles contain a single letter. For instance, there are two blank tiles but only one of each Q and Z tile. The following table will show you how many of each letter there is and how many points they’re worth.

Standard English Letter Distribution

Super Scrabble

Super Scrabble is a variation of the classic board game that uses a 21 × 21-grid board instead of 15 × 15. The measurements of a Super Scrabble board are the same, except for the board, which is wider and longer than the standard board.

The letter distribution of a game of Super Scrabble is as follows:

What Does the Star Square Mean?

If you take a look at a Scrabble board, you will find a star symbol located at the direct center of the board. The star denotes the place where the first player must lie down their first tiles to create a word on the board.

The star also acts as a double-word score multiplier, so the first player will receive double the points for starting the game. Any subsequent tiles that are added to the first word, either by the first player or other players, will not receive the double-word bonus.

How Do You Calculate Scores?

You can check out the Hasbro website for a comprehensive guide on official Scrabble gameplay rules. But if you’re short on time, I’ll break down how you can calculate your score down below.

1. Add the total value on each played tile.
2. Take note of whether or not any of the played tiles were placed on a Premium Letter Square (double or triple the tile’s value) or Word Multiplier square (double or triple the word’s value).
3. If a blank tile was played on a Premium Letter Square, the tile’s score remains at 0. Otherwise, multiply the value of the tile accordingly.
4. If a single word was played on multiple Premium Letter or Premium Word Squares, then you will apply both bonuses at the same time. For instance, if a word uses two Triple Premium Word Squares, take the sum of the word and multiply it by 3 and multiply that figure by 3.
5. The Premium Letter and Premium Word Square bonuses only apply to the first word that was played on those squares. Any subsequent players who add tiles to the previous word will receive the face value of those tiles.
6. If a player uses all seven tiles during one turn, they will receive a BINGO bonus of 50 points at the end of their turn. The BINGO bonus does not receive Premium Letter or Premium Word Square effects.
7. At the end of the game, add up the total points of each player and subtract the face value of each remaining tile on their racks. The player with the highest score wins the match.