NIE is valid in Collins, not in North America — 3 points
It depends on the list you play by. NIE 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 3 points. Words with Friends does not accept it either.
Which word lists accept NIE?
| 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: 41 / 100
Our own measure of how useful NIE is to know. It scores 3 from 3 tiles, takes 4 hooks, and its letters make up 9.0% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for NIE
Checked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How NIE scores
Face value of the 3 tiles in NIE, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| n | 1 | 6 |
| i | 1 | 9 |
| e | 1 | 12 |
Drawing exactly these 3 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 250.
What does NIE mean in Scrabble?
verb
archaicobsolete
To nigh; to draw near or approach.
Nie is an old spelling of nigh used as a verb rather than the modern adjective. Writers before the eighteenth century used nie for the act of coming closer, and the form survived mainly in regional speech after nigh settled into its adjectival role of meaning near. Editors of early texts kept nie in glossaries so readers would not confuse it with a modern coinage.
How NIE is used
Found in older texts and word lists rather than in modern speech; today nigh itself is already rare.
- The traveller began to nie the gate as dusk settled over the village.
- In the old ballad, sorrow was said to nie the household each winter.
- She watched the storm nie the coastline hour by hour.
- The scout reported that the enemy line would nie the river by morning.
- Editors marked nie as an archaic variant whenever it appeared in the manuscript.
- He felt his final hour nie as the candle burned low.
- The herd seemed to nie the farmhouse before the shepherd even called.
- Grammarians list nie alongside nigh to explain the verb's older form.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of NIE and 8 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Where else you’ll see NIE
- Nie shares its root with the modern adjective nigh, both descending from Old English neah meaning close.
- Nie is the German word for never, and it turns up in English writing inside quoted German phrases.
- Because nigh itself became rare as a verb, nie survives mainly in glossaries of archaic English rather than in living speech.
Words starting with NIE
19 longer words begin with NIE.
Words ending in NIE
Showing 24 of 65 words that end in NIE. Useful as a back hook: play NIE onto a word already on the board.
Words with NIE inside
Showing 24 of 787 words that contain NIE somewhere in the middle. Words that start with NIE are listed separately above, so nothing is repeated.
Shorter words from the letters in NIE
Common questions about NIE
- Is NIE valid in Words with Friends?
- No. Words with Friends keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries, and NIE is not in it.
- How many points is NIE worth?
- NIE is worth 3 points in Scrabble and 4 points in Words with Friends.
- What does NIE mean?
- To nigh; to draw near or approach.
- What letters can be added to NIE?
- NIE takes 4 hooks: 1 in front and 3 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 3 letters of NIE:
Open NIE in the Word Finder