SPYAL is valid in Collins, not in North America — 10 points
It depends on the list you play by. SPYAL 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 SPYAL?
| 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 SPYAL is to know. It scores 10 from 5 tiles, takes 1 hook, and its letters make up 4.2% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for SPYAL
Front hooks — 0
None.
Back hooks — 1
spyalsChecked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How SPYAL scores
Face value of the 5 tiles in SPYAL, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| s | 1 | 4 |
| p | 1 | 2 |
| y | 1 | 2 |
| a | 1 | 9 |
| l | 1 | 4 |
Drawing exactly these 5 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 130,708.
What stands out about SPYAL
- The same 5 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 SPYAL mean in Scrabble?
noun
archaicliterary
An archaic literary word for a spy, found chiefly in the poetry of Edmund Spenser.
Spyal turns up mainly in the verse of Edmund Spenser, where an older layer of the language still kept forms close to the Latin root behind espial and espy. A spyal watched an enemy or a rival in secret, exactly as a spy does today, and the two words share that same root. Standard English eventually settled on the shorter spy and let spyal fade into a curiosity noted only in glossaries. Anyone who meets spyal now is almost certainly reading Spenser or a note written about him.
How SPYAL is used
Archaic and literary; encountered almost only in Spenser's verse or in commentary on it.
- The poem calls the hidden watcher a spyal rather than a spy.
- A spyal crouched among the reeds and counted every soldier that passed.
- Spenser used spyal where a modern poet would simply write spy.
- The glossary explains spyal as an older form of the same word.
- No spyal escaped the notice of the watchful queen in the tale.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of SPYAL and 5 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Anagrams of SPYAL
The 5 tiles of SPYAL in a different order — 3 found.
Words starting with SPYAL
1 longer words begin with SPYAL.
Shorter words from the letters in SPYAL
Common questions about SPYAL
- Is SPYAL valid in Words with Friends?
- No. Words with Friends keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries, and SPYAL is not in it.
- How many points is SPYAL worth?
- SPYAL is worth 10 points in Scrabble and 11 points in Words with Friends.
- What does SPYAL mean?
- An archaic literary word for a spy, found chiefly in the poetry of Edmund Spenser.
- What letters can be added to SPYAL?
- SPYAL takes 1 hook: 0 in front and 1 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 5 letters of SPYAL:
Open SPYAL in the Word Finder