SAIM is valid in Collins, not in North America — 6 points
It depends on the list you play by. SAIM 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 6 points. Words with Friends does not accept it either.
Which word lists accept SAIM?
| 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: 31 / 100
Our own measure of how useful SAIM is to know. It scores 6 from 4 tiles, takes 1 hook, and its letters make up 6.0% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for SAIM
Front hooks — 0
None.
Back hooks — 1
saimsChecked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How SAIM scores
Face value of the 4 tiles in SAIM, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| s | 1 | 4 |
| a | 1 | 9 |
| i | 1 | 9 |
| m | 1 | 2 |
Drawing exactly these 4 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 6,051.
What stands out about SAIM
- The same 4 tiles also spell 3 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 SAIM mean in Scrabble?
noun
Scotsdialect
Lard or grease, in Scots dialect.
Saim named the soft rendered fat kept for cooking in older rural northern households, much as households further south relied on a different everyday word for the same product. It belongs to farm and kitchen vocabulary rather than to literature, and cooks reached for it instead of naming the fat directly by its usual English name. Today the word turns up mainly in old glossaries and regional word lists rather than in any working kitchen.
How SAIM is used
Regional Scots dialect; rare outside glossaries and older rural speech.
- She kept a jar of saim beside the stove for frying.
- The old recipe called for a spoonful of saim rather than butter.
- Farmers rendered saim from the pig after the autumn killing.
- His grandmother still spoke of saim when she meant cooking fat.
- The bannocks tasted better fried in saim, she always said.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of SAIM and 5 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Anagrams of SAIM
The 4 tiles of SAIM in a different order — 3 found.
Words starting with SAIM
5 longer words begin with SAIM.
Words ending in SAIM
1 words end in SAIM. Useful as a back hook: play SAIM onto a word already on the board.
Words with SAIM inside
3 words contain SAIM in the middle. Words that start with SAIM are listed separately above, so nothing is repeated.
Shorter words from the letters in SAIM
Common questions about SAIM
- Is SAIM valid in Words with Friends?
- No. Words with Friends keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries, and SAIM is not in it.
- How many points is SAIM worth?
- SAIM is worth 6 points in Scrabble and 7 points in Words with Friends.
- What does SAIM mean?
- Lard or grease, in Scots dialect.
- What letters can be added to SAIM?
- SAIM takes 1 hook: 0 in front and 1 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 4 letters of SAIM:
Open SAIM in the Word Finder