Score the Board › Scrabble guides · Updated 25 October 2026

Games like Scrabble: the best word board games

Independent picks: nobody pays to be listed. Links to Amazon are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

The closest physical game to Scrabble for most families is Bananagrams: you still build words from letter tiles, but there is no board and no waiting for your turn. Below, each game is sorted by what it keeps from Scrabble and what it drops, so you can pick one that suits your group.

Which game should you buy?

Pick Bananagrams if you like building words, Boggle if you like spotting them, and Tapple or Scrabble Slam if you want something quick and loud. The table sums up every game in this guide.

If you like building words from tiles

Bananagrams is the nearest match: it has 144 letter tiles, and you use them to build your own crossword-style grid. Nobody takes turns. Everyone plays at once, and the first player to use every tile calls "Bananas". Two moves keep it fair. When you use all your tiles, everyone takes one more (a "peel"). If you are stuck with an awkward letter, you can swap it for three new tiles (a "dump"). A hand can take as little as 5 minutes, so you can play several in an evening. The listing says it is for ages 7 and up, with up to 8 players.

There is no board, no premium squares, and no score to add up, which suits families who find Scrabble slow. Agree on a dictionary before you start, because the rules allow any available dictionary and proper nouns do not count. Our two-letter words list helps here, as it does in any tile game.

The big-letter version has large, easy-to-read tiles, which helps if anyone struggles with small print.

My First Bananagrams uses easier tiles for ages 4 and up. Its listing says it comes with 80 single letter tiles and 13 combo-letter tiles, and plays with 1 to 4 players.

Upwords keeps the board but changes how you use it. Instead of building outward, you stack tiles on top of letters already played to make new words, so the board never fills up. Scoring depends on the tiles used and how high they are stacked, and there are no premium squares. It is a good fit for people who enjoy Scrabble but want a new puzzle.

If you like spotting words fast

Boggle is the one to try: you shake a grid of 16 letter dice, then have three minutes to find words made from touching letters. Only words that nobody else found score, so the obvious short words cancel out and the longer finds win. Each player writes down their words on paper.

One honest drawback: players who spot words quickly can pull well ahead, which can leave slower spellers out. Mixed-age families may want to play it for fun rather than keeping a strict score.

Super Big Boggle uses a 6 by 6 grid with 36 letter cubes and a 4-minute sand timer. The listing says it asks for words of four letters or more, so it suits players who have outgrown the standard game.

If you want something quick and loud

Tapple and Scrabble Slam both play faster than Scrabble, and neither needs a board. In Tapple, you choose a category card, press the timer, and shout words that start with a certain letter, then press that letter's tab on the wheel. The listing says it is for 2 to 8 players, ages 8 and up, so it works for a big Thanksgiving table.

Scrabble Slam is a card game. You start from a four-letter word and change one letter at a time, and the first player to get rid of all their cards wins.

Quiddler is another card option. You make words from the cards in your hand, and the hands grow from three cards to ten as the rounds go on, so the words get longer. It packs into a small box for a trip.

Which game suits younger children?

My First Bananagrams (ages 4 and up) and Scrabble Junior (ages 5 and up) are the two made for younger players in this guide. My First Bananagrams uses easier tiles and no board. Scrabble Junior has a two-sided board, which makes it a gentle step toward the full game. When they are ready, our Scrabble rules explain the full game in plain English.

If you still want Scrabble, but bigger

Super Scrabble is the answer: it has a 21 by 21 board and 200 tiles, with quadruple squares. It plays like Scrabble but gives more room for long words. We found it on Amazon only through a third-party seller, so we have not added a card. Read more on our Super Scrabble page. If you keep score on paper, our score keeper and printable score sheet work for any Scrabble-style game.

Other games worth knowing about

These games come up often in recommendations. We have not added buy links for them, but they are easy to find in US stores and online.

• Word on the Street: two teams race to pull letters off their side of a street board by saying words that fit a category. The first team to pull eight letters off wins.
• Word games for older players: see our word games for seniors guide for large-print and easy-to-handle picks.
• Wordfeud: a phone game with the same 15 by 15 board as Scrabble. It is free with ads and lets you play up to 30 games at once.
• Words With Friends: another popular phone game that plays like Scrabble.

More word board games for adults

If you want a word game with a board or a market to play on, rather than a quick party game, these three are well regarded by board game players:

• Letter Tycoon: build words from the cards in your hand and a shared row of letters, then use the money you earn to buy letter patents that pay you whenever others use them.
• Paperback: a deck-building game. You spell words from the cards in your hand and spend the points to buy better letter cards for your deck.
• A Little Wordy: a two-player game from Exploding Kittens. Each player builds a secret word from tiles, and the other uses clues to work it out.

How do you choose between them?

Choose by group first, then by style. Here is a simple rule of thumb.

• Two players: Bananagrams, which also works with 2 players, or Upwords.
• A big group: Tapple and Bananagrams both play up to 8.
• Mixed ages: My First Bananagrams for the youngest, plus Scrabble Junior for early readers.
• Travel: Bananagrams, which has no board and comes in a pouch, or Quiddler.
• You miss the board and the scoring: Upwords, or a house rule. See our house rules for ways to change the game.

If you want to compare how scoring works, see our Scrabble scoring guide and the tile values (Scrabble has 100 tiles; Bananagrams has 144).

Related: Gifts for Scrabble lovers · Which Scrabble set should you buy? · Score keeper · Rules · Two-letter words