POLIS is a valid Scrabble word — 7 points
Yes. POLIS is accepted by every list we check: Collins, the North American lists and Words with Friends. It scores 7 points in Scrabble and 9 in Words with Friends.
Which word lists accept POLIS?
| Official Scrabble Players DictionaryUSA, Canada, Thailand | Valid |
|---|---|
| Official Tournament and Club Word ListUSA, Canada, Thailand | Valid |
| Collins Scrabble WordsEnglish in most countries | Valid |
| Words with FriendsZynga word list | Valid |
Word power: 29 / 100
Our own measure of how useful POLIS is to know. It scores 7 from 5 tiles, takes 1 hook, and its letters make up 5.4% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for POLIS
Front hooks — 0
None.
Back hooks — 1
polishChecked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF.
How POLIS scores
Face value of the 5 tiles in POLIS, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| p | 1 | 2 |
| o | 1 | 8 |
| l | 1 | 4 |
| i | 1 | 9 |
| s | 1 | 4 |
Drawing exactly these 5 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 32,677.
What stands out about POLIS
- 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 POLIS mean in Scrabble?
noun
historical
An independent city-state of ancient Greece, together with its surrounding territory and citizens.
A polis was more than a walled town; it was a self-governing political community, with its own laws, assembly and army, so that Athens, Sparta and Corinth counted as separate poleis rather than provinces of a single Greek nation. Ancient philosophers such as Aristotle treated the polis as the natural setting for a fully human life, since only within one could a citizen take part in public debate and shared decision-making. The word survives directly in English through terms such as politics and metropolis, both built on the same Greek root for a city. Historians still use polis rather than city-state when they want to keep the specifically Greek political sense of the word.
How POLIS is used
A term from ancient history and classics, describing the self-governing Greek city-state rather than any modern city.
- Athens was the most famous polis of the classical Greek world.
- Each polis kept its own laws, coinage and citizen assembly.
- Aristotle argued that a person could only flourish within a polis.
- Wars between one polis and another were common throughout Greek history.
- The historian traced how the polis gradually gave way to larger kingdoms.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of POLIS and 5 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Anagrams of POLIS
The 5 tiles of POLIS in a different order — 2 found.
Words starting with POLIS
11 longer words begin with POLIS.
Words ending in POLIS
13 words end in POLIS. Useful as a back hook: play POLIS onto a word already on the board.
Words with POLIS inside
Showing 24 of 53 words that contain POLIS somewhere in the middle. Words that start with POLIS are listed separately above, so nothing is repeated.
Shorter words from the letters in POLIS
Showing 40 of 41. See all in the Word Finder
Common questions about POLIS
- Is POLIS valid in Words with Friends?
- Yes. Words with Friends accepts POLIS, where it scores 9 points. That game keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries.
- How many points is POLIS worth?
- POLIS is worth 7 points in Scrabble and 9 points in Words with Friends.
- What does POLIS mean?
- An independent city-state of ancient Greece, together with its surrounding territory and citizens.
- What letters can be added to POLIS?
- POLIS takes 1 hook: 0 in front and 1 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 5 letters of POLIS:
Open POLIS in the Word Finder