PHENE is valid in Collins, not in North America — 10 points
It depends on the list you play by. PHENE 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 10 points. Words with Friends does not accept it either.
Which word lists accept PHENE?
| 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 PHENE is to know. It scores 10 from 5 tiles, takes 2 hooks, and its letters make up 6.8% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for PHENE
Checked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How PHENE scores
Face value of the 5 tiles in PHENE, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| p | 1 | 2 |
| h | 1 | 2 |
| e | 2 | 12 |
| n | 1 | 6 |
Drawing exactly these 5 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 47,530.
What does PHENE mean in Scrabble?
noun
chemistryhistorical
An old name for the hydrocarbon benzene.
Phene was one of the names nineteenth-century chemists used for benzene, before the modern name settled into common use; it draws on the Greek phainein, to shine, because the compound was first isolated from the luminous residue of coal gas. It now survives mainly in older chemistry texts and in words built from it, such as phenol. Modern chemistry keeps phene almost entirely as a word-forming element rather than a standalone name.
How PHENE is used
Historical; found in nineteenth-century chemistry writing, replaced by benzene in modern use.
- Early chemists listed phene among the products of coal gas.
- The old textbook calls benzene by its earlier name, phene.
- Phene later gave its name to the compound phenol.
- Nineteenth-century papers still refer to phene rather than benzene.
- The lecture traced how phene became benzene in modern usage.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of PHENE and 5 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Words starting with PHENE
13 longer words begin with PHENE.
Words ending in PHENE
12 words end in PHENE. Useful as a back hook: play PHENE onto a word already on the board.
Words with PHENE inside
13 words contain PHENE in the middle. Words that start with PHENE are listed separately above, so nothing is repeated.
Shorter words from the letters in PHENE
Common questions about PHENE
- Is PHENE valid in Words with Friends?
- No. Words with Friends keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries, and PHENE is not in it.
- How many points is PHENE worth?
- PHENE is worth 10 points in Scrabble and 11 points in Words with Friends.
- What does PHENE mean?
- An old name for the hydrocarbon benzene.
- What letters can be added to PHENE?
- PHENE takes 2 hooks: 1 in front and 1 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 5 letters of PHENE:
Open PHENE in the Word Finder