JAFFA is valid in Collins, not in North America — 18 points
It depends on the list you play by. JAFFA 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 18 points. Words with Friends does not accept it either.
Which word lists accept JAFFA?
| 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 | Not listed |
Word power: 46 / 100
Our own measure of how useful JAFFA is to know. It scores 18 from 5 tiles, takes 1 hook, and its letters make up 4.6% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for JAFFA
Front hooks — 0
None.
Back hooks — 1
jaffasChecked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How JAFFA scores
Face value of the 5 tiles in JAFFA, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| j | 1 | 1 |
| a | 2 | 9 |
| f | 2 | 2 |
Drawing exactly these 5 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 2,091 thousand.
What does JAFFA mean in Scrabble?
noun
informalBritish
A cricket delivery bowled so skilfully that the batsman has almost no chance of playing it, often resulting in a wicket.
A jaffa is the cricket commentator's term of admiration for an especially unplayable ball, one that moves late through the air or off the pitch and beats the batsman before there is much time to react. The word belongs to the informal language of cricket commentary and dressing-room talk rather than to the formal laws of the game, and a bowler is praised for producing a jaffa at a crucial moment in a match.
How JAFFA is used
Informal British and Commonwealth cricket slang, mainly heard in commentary and match reports rather than everyday speech.
- The bowler produced an unplayable jaffa to clean bowl the opener.
- Commentators called it an absolute jaffa as the stumps went flying.
- He needed just one jaffa to end the batsman's resistance.
- That jaffa swung in late and clipped the top of off stump.
- Fans still talk about the jaffa that won the match.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of JAFFA and 5 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Words starting with JAFFA
1 longer words begin with JAFFA.
Shorter words from the letters in JAFFA
Common questions about JAFFA
- Is JAFFA valid in Words with Friends?
- No. Words with Friends keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries, and JAFFA is not in it.
- How many points is JAFFA worth?
- JAFFA is worth 18 points in Scrabble and 20 points in Words with Friends.
- What does JAFFA mean?
- A cricket delivery bowled so skilfully that the batsman has almost no chance of playing it, often resulting in a wicket.
- What letters can be added to JAFFA?
- JAFFA takes 1 hook: 0 in front and 1 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 5 letters of JAFFA:
Open JAFFA in the Word Finder