How to Play Cross Words — Beginner's Guide

Cross Words is a Scrabble-style word game: use the letter tiles on your rack to build words on the board and outscore your opponents.

The Board and the Tiles

The board is 15×15 squares. Some squares award bonus points:

• DL / TL: a letter placed here scores double (Double Letter) or triple (Triple Letter).
• DW / TW: the whole word scores double (Double Word) or triple (Triple Word).

Each player holds 7 letter tiles, and every letter has its own point value — common letters like E, A, I are worth 1 point, while Q and Z are worth 10.

How a Turn Works

• The first word must cover the star square in the center of the board.
• From the second turn on, every new word must connect to existing words (placed horizontally or vertically, touching a letter already on the board).
• Every word formed in a turn must be valid — the game checks against a dictionary of over 168,000 English words.
• Playing all 7 tiles in one turn earns a +50 bonus (called a "bingo").
• There are 2 blank tiles, which can stand for any letter but are worth 0 points.
• Can't find a word? You may swap tiles — but it costs your turn.

Playing Cross Words on SynerWorlds

• Against the computer: 12 difficulty levels, with up to 3 computer opponents in a single game.
• Online rooms: 2–4 players share one board, and the highest score wins.

Tips for Beginners

Save your blanks and your S for a bingo attempt — S is very easy to hang onto the end of an existing word.

Place high-value letters (Q, Z, X, J) on DL/TL squares to multiply their points.

Learn the common two-letter words (AA, QI, ZA, JO...) — they score points in spots that look hopeless.

Watch for hooks: adding a single letter to a word already on the board creates a new word and scores.

You can play Cross Words right here — start against the computer at a low level and build your vocabulary as you play!