ALLEY is a valid Scrabble word — 8 points
Yes. ALLEY is accepted by every list we check: Collins, the North American lists and Words with Friends. It scores 8 points in Scrabble and 9 in Words with Friends.
Which word lists accept ALLEY?
| Official Scrabble Players DictionaryUSA, Canada, Thailand | Valid |
|---|---|
| Official Tournament and Club Word ListUSA, Canada, Thailand | Valid |
| Collins Scrabble WordsEnglish in most countries | Valid |
| Words with FriendsZynga word list | Valid |
Word power: 42 / 100
Our own measure of how useful ALLEY is to know. It scores 8 from 5 tiles, takes 4 hooks, and its letters make up 6.2% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for ALLEY
Checked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How ALLEY scores
Face value of the 5 tiles in ALLEY, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| a | 1 | 9 |
| l | 2 | 4 |
| e | 1 | 12 |
| y | 1 | 2 |
Drawing exactly these 5 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 58,092.
What does ALLEY mean in Scrabble?
noun
A narrow passage or lane between or behind buildings, or a long narrow lane used for bowling.
In its oldest sense an alley is simply a narrow way that lets people move between buildings where there is no room for a full street, and cities from London to New York are full of them. The same word was borrowed for the long, narrow wooden lane that a bowler sends the ball down, since both are long, straight, and enclosed. Alley also survives in fixed phrases such as blind alley, meaning a route or plan that leads nowhere, and up someone's alley, meaning suited to their taste. The narrowness that defines a physical alley carries over neatly into these figurative uses.
How ALLEY is used
Common in everyday speech, both for the physical passage and in fixed phrases like blind alley or right up my alley.
- The cat slipped through a gap in the fence and vanished down the alley.
- He rolled the ball straight down the bowling alley for a strike.
- Trash cans lined the narrow alley behind the restaurant.
- The investigation turned into a real blind alley.
- Fixing old radios is right up my alley.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of ALLEY and 5 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Words starting with ALLEY
6 longer words begin with ALLEY.
Words ending in ALLEY
5 words end in ALLEY. Useful as a back hook: play ALLEY onto a word already on the board.
Words with ALLEY inside
9 words contain ALLEY in the middle. Words that start with ALLEY are listed separately above, so nothing is repeated.
Shorter words from the letters in ALLEY
Common questions about ALLEY
- Is ALLEY valid in Words with Friends?
- Yes. Words with Friends accepts ALLEY, where it scores 9 points. That game keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries.
- How many points is ALLEY worth?
- ALLEY is worth 8 points in Scrabble and 9 points in Words with Friends.
- What does ALLEY mean?
- A narrow passage or lane between or behind buildings, or a long narrow lane used for bowling.
- What letters can be added to ALLEY?
- ALLEY takes 4 hooks: 3 in front and 1 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 5 letters of ALLEY:
Open ALLEY in the Word Finder