KILEY is valid in Collins, not in North America — 12 points
It depends on the list you play by. KILEY 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 12 points. Words with Friends does not accept it either.
Which word lists accept KILEY?
| 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: 38 / 100
Our own measure of how useful KILEY is to know. It scores 12 from 5 tiles, takes 1 hook, and its letters make up 5.6% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for KILEY
Front hooks — 0
None.
Back hooks — 1
kileysChecked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How KILEY scores
Face value of the 5 tiles in KILEY, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| k | 1 | 1 |
| i | 1 | 9 |
| l | 1 | 4 |
| e | 1 | 12 |
| y | 1 | 2 |
Drawing exactly these 5 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 87,138.
What stands out about KILEY
- The same 5 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 KILEY mean in Scrabble?
noun
Australianhistorical
A curved wooden throwing stick made and used by Aboriginal Australians, a form of boomerang.
A kiley is shaped and weighted for hunting or fighting rather than for returning to the thrower, unlike the lighter sporting boomerang most people picture today. Early European settlers wrote the word down in several spellings, and kiley survives in older records beside the now more familiar kylie. Aboriginal groups across the continent made a kiley from whatever local timber suited it, and gave it a curve matched to local game. The tool reflects centuries of craft rather than one single fixed design.
How KILEY is used
Mostly found in older ethnographic and historical writing about Aboriginal Australian tools; kylie is the more common spelling today.
- The museum displayed a kiley carved from a single curved branch.
- Early settlers described the kiley as a hunting weapon rather than a toy.
- A kiley thrown flat and low could bring down a bird in flight.
- The word kiley appears in nineteenth-century accounts alongside kylie.
- Each kiley was shaped to suit the timber it came from.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of KILEY and 5 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Anagrams of KILEY
The 5 tiles of KILEY in a different order — 2 found.
Words starting with KILEY
1 longer words begin with KILEY.
Shorter words from the letters in KILEY
Common questions about KILEY
- Is KILEY valid in Words with Friends?
- No. Words with Friends keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries, and KILEY is not in it.
- How many points is KILEY worth?
- KILEY is worth 12 points in Scrabble and 12 points in Words with Friends.
- What does KILEY mean?
- A curved wooden throwing stick made and used by Aboriginal Australians, a form of boomerang.
- What letters can be added to KILEY?
- KILEY takes 1 hook: 0 in front and 1 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 5 letters of KILEY:
Open KILEY in the Word Finder