ZEA is valid in Collins, not in North America — 12 points
It depends on the list you play by. ZEA 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 12 points. Words with Friends does not accept it either.
Which word lists accept ZEA?
| 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: 60 / 100
Our own measure of how useful ZEA is to know. It scores 12 from 3 tiles, takes 2 hooks, and its letters make up 7.3% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for ZEA
Checked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How ZEA scores
Face value of the 3 tiles in ZEA, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| z | 1 | 1 |
| e | 1 | 12 |
| a | 1 | 9 |
Drawing exactly these 3 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 1,497.
What does ZEA mean in Scrabble?
noun
technicalbotany
The botanical genus name for maize, also used for corn silk, the fine threads of the corn plant.
Zea is the scientific genus that contains maize, known in full as Zea mays, and the same word is used loosely for corn silk, the soft threads once dried and used as a mild diuretic remedy. Botanists still use zea in Latin plant names for corn and its wild relatives.
How ZEA is used
Used mainly in botany and older herbal texts rather than everyday speech.
- The label read Zea mays, the scientific name for corn.
- Herbalists once brewed zea into a tea for the kidneys.
- The greenhouse grows several wild relatives of zea.
- Farmers separated the zea silk before grinding the cobs.
- The botany textbook devoted a chapter to zea and its varieties.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of ZEA and 5 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Words starting with ZEA
21 longer words begin with ZEA.
Words with ZEA inside
12 words contain ZEA in the middle. Words that start with ZEA are listed separately above, so nothing is repeated.
Shorter words from the letters in ZEA
Common questions about ZEA
- Is ZEA valid in Words with Friends?
- No. Words with Friends keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries, and ZEA is not in it.
- How many points is ZEA worth?
- ZEA is worth 12 points in Scrabble and 12 points in Words with Friends.
- What does ZEA mean?
- The botanical genus name for maize, also used for corn silk, the fine threads of the corn plant.
- What letters can be added to ZEA?
- ZEA takes 2 hooks: 0 in front and 2 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 3 letters of ZEA:
Open ZEA in the Word Finder