CRAN is valid in Collins, not in North America — 6 points
It depends on the list you play by. CRAN is in Collins, used in the UK and most of the world, but it is not in the North American lists — so in a US or Canadian game an opponent can challenge it off the board. Worth 6 points. Words with Friends does accept it.
Which word lists accept CRAN?
| Official Scrabble Players DictionaryUSA, Canada, Thailand | Not listed |
|---|---|
| Official Tournament and Club Word ListUSA, Canada, Thailand | Not listed |
| Collins Scrabble WordsEnglish in most countries | Valid |
| Words with FriendsZynga word list | Valid |
Word power: 40 / 100
Our own measure of how useful CRAN is to know. It scores 6 from 4 tiles, takes 4 hooks, and its letters make up 5.8% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for CRAN
Checked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How CRAN scores
Face value of the 4 tiles in CRAN, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| c | 1 | 2 |
| r | 1 | 6 |
| a | 1 | 9 |
| n | 1 | 6 |
Drawing exactly these 4 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 6,051.
What stands out about CRAN
- The same 4 tiles also spell 2 other words, so the rack is worth re-reading before you play it.
Counted from the four word lists we hold, not taken from anywhere else. How we calculate things
What does CRAN mean in Scrabble?
noun
Scotshistorical
A traditional Scottish unit of volume used to measure freshly caught herring, equal to about thirty-seven and a half gallons.
Cran comes from Scottish Gaelic and was adopted by the fishing trade along the east coast, where herring were sold by the basketful rather than weighed on shore. Because the measure was tied to a specific container rather than an abstract quantity, buyer and seller could agree a price at the quayside without needing scales at all. The fleets that once made cran an everyday working word have largely vanished, so the term now turns up mostly in maritime history and old harbour records.
How CRAN is used
Belongs to the traditional Scottish herring trade and is rarely used outside that context.
- The boat landed a catch measured at ten cran of herring.
- Fishermen were once paid according to the number of cran they brought ashore.
- A cran of herring filled several large baskets.
- The old harbour records list catches in cran rather than in weight.
- One cran could supply a whole village with fish for days.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of CRAN and 5 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Anagrams of CRAN
The 4 tiles of CRAN in a different order — 2 found.
Words starting with CRAN
Showing 24 of 100 words that begin with CRAN.
Words ending in CRAN
1 words end in CRAN. Useful as a back hook: play CRAN onto a word already on the board.
Words with CRAN inside
Showing 24 of 38 words that contain CRAN somewhere in the middle. Words that start with CRAN are listed separately above, so nothing is repeated.
Shorter words from the letters in CRAN
Common questions about CRAN
- Is CRAN valid in Words with Friends?
- Yes. Words with Friends accepts CRAN, where it scores 8 points. That game keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries.
- How many points is CRAN worth?
- CRAN is worth 6 points in Scrabble and 8 points in Words with Friends.
- What does CRAN mean?
- A traditional Scottish unit of volume used to measure freshly caught herring, equal to about thirty-seven and a half gallons.
- What letters can be added to CRAN?
- CRAN takes 4 hooks: 1 in front and 3 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 4 letters of CRAN:
Open CRAN in the Word Finder