BABEL is a valid Scrabble word — 9 points
Yes. BABEL is accepted by every list we check: Collins, the North American lists and Words with Friends. It scores 9 points in Scrabble and 12 in Words with Friends.
Which word lists accept BABEL?
| 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: 33 / 100
Our own measure of how useful BABEL is to know. It scores 9 from 5 tiles, takes 1 hook, and its letters make up 5.8% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for BABEL
Front hooks — 0
None.
Back hooks — 1
babelsChecked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How BABEL scores
Face value of the 5 tiles in BABEL, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| b | 2 | 2 |
| a | 1 | 9 |
| e | 1 | 12 |
| l | 1 | 4 |
Drawing exactly these 5 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 174,277.
What does BABEL mean in Scrabble?
noun
literary
A confused jumble of many loud voices or sounds, so mixed together that no single one can be made out; more broadly, any scene of noisy disorder.
A crowded market or a room full of arguing committee members can both be described as a babel, the word capturing the way dozens of separate conversations blur into one indistinct roar rather than any individual message. English borrowed babel from the biblical story of the tower built at Babel, where a confusion of languages left the builders unable to understand one another, and the word has since broadened to describe any noisy confusion of sound, whether or not different languages are involved. Writers reach for babel specifically because it suggests confusion caused by too many voices competing at once, rather than simple loudness from a single source. A busy trading floor, a school playground at break time or a crowded press conference might all earn the label babel in descriptive writing.
How BABEL is used
Chiefly literary and descriptive; used to evoke a scene where many voices or sounds mix into a confused, indistinct roar.
- The trading floor dissolved into a babel of shouted orders.
- A babel of languages rose from the crowded market square.
- Reporters created a babel of questions at the press conference.
- The playground erupted into its usual babel at recess.
- Amid the babel of the debate, no single argument could be followed.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of BABEL and 5 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Words starting with BABEL
7 longer words begin with BABEL.
Shorter words from the letters in BABEL
Common questions about BABEL
- Is BABEL valid in Words with Friends?
- Yes. Words with Friends accepts BABEL, where it scores 12 points. That game keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries.
- How many points is BABEL worth?
- BABEL is worth 9 points in Scrabble and 12 points in Words with Friends.
- What does BABEL mean?
- A confused jumble of many loud voices or sounds, so mixed together that no single one can be made out; more broadly, any scene of noisy disorder.
- What letters can be added to BABEL?
- BABEL takes 1 hook: 0 in front and 1 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 5 letters of BABEL:
Open BABEL in the Word Finder