Upwords Board Game: Rules for How to Play

Setup

Place the gameboard in the middle of the table where everyone can reach it.
One player grabs a piece of paper and something to write with in order to keep score. You may also want to have a dictionary available for challenges.
Each player takes a tile rack.
Place all of the tiles in the included bag.
Each player randomly draws a tile. The player that draws the tile closest to letter “A” gets to go first. Return all of the tiles to the bag.
Starting with the first player, each player draws seven tiles. You will place your tiles in your tile rack. You should make sure the other players can’t see your tiles.

First Turn

The first player starts the game by using the letters from their rack to create a word that is at least two letters long. When they have chosen a word, they will place it on the board so the letters spell out the word either horizontally or vertically. They must place the tiles so at least one of the tiles touch one of the four spaces in the center of the board.

The first player then scores the word they played. They will score two points per letter used in the word. Record the player’s score on the piece of paper.

Creating the first word — The first player decided to create the word “table” with their letters. As the word has five letters in it, the word scores them ten points.

They will then draw new tiles until they have seven tiles in their rack. Play then passes to the player on their left.

How to Play Upwords

After the first turn, all of the players will take turns trying to play a new word to the gameboard. On your turn you can take one of two actions.

Play one or more tiles to create a new word, add to an existing word, or change an existing word.
Choose one tile to exchange and pass the rest of your turn.

After the first word is played, every other word has to connect to at least one letter already on the gameboard. You can create a new word using one of the letters from a previous word and playing other tiles from your rack. All of the tiles you play have to be played to the same vertical or horizontal line.

Play second word — The second player decided to only play two tiles from their rack. They decide to play the A and N tiles on top of the T tile to create the word ant.

Otherwise you can add to or change an existing word. First you can take a word already on the gameboard and add more tiles to the beginning and/or end in order to change it into another word.

Adding to a word — The third player decided to play one T to the end of table to turn it into tablet.

Normally you are not allowed to just add a “S” to the end of a word to make it plural. This is only allowed if the “S” is part of another word you play.

Adding an S to a word — Normally a player couldn’t add a S to the end of ant to make it ants. It is allowed in this case though because the player plays the word has, which adds the s to the end of ant.

One unique thing about Upwords is that you can also stack tiles on top of one another. There are some rules that you need to follow when stacking tiles.

You can only place one new tile on each stack on your turn. Basically you can’t place multiple of your tiles on top of one another in order to score more points and get rid of your tiles.
You can stack tiles on top of multiple letters in a word, but you must leave at least one of the letters visible from the previous word.
A letter cannot be stacked on top of itself. For example the top letter on a stack is an A. You cannot stack another A directly on top of it again.
Each stack can only have a total of five tiles on it.

Stacking tiles to create a new word — The current player has decided to alter the word ants by adding two letters. First they place a R on top of the N. Then they add a D to the beginning to create the word darts.

Illegal Words and Challenging

When creating words in Upwords, the following cannot be used:

Proper Nouns – Words that you always capitalize like names of people and places.
Any words that use a hyphen, or apostrophe.
Abbreviations, acronyms, and symbols.
Prefixes and suffixes that aren’t words themselves.
Foreign words unless they appear in a dictionary.

If you think another player has misspelled a word or used a word that is not allowed, you can challenge them. You must challenge them before the next word is played. You will look up the word in a dictionary. If the word is not in the dictionary or breaks one of the rules above, the player has to remove all of the tiles they played on their turn. If they already scored for their turn, they will lose the points they scored.

They will then have one more opportunity to try and create a word. If they can’t come up with another word or it is also illegal, they have to pass their turn and they don’t score any points.

Passing

If you can’t find a word to play or choose not to play any tiles, you can pass your turn.

When you choose to pass your turn, you have the option of swapping out one of your letter tiles. Choose which tile you don’t want and set it aside. Then draw a new tile from the bag and add it to your rack. Then return the tile you set aside to the bag.

Scoring

After you play tiles to create a new word or add/change a word, you will score points for the word(s) you created.

First look at all of the tiles in the word you created/changed. If all of the tiles in the word are only one tile high (there are no stacked letters), you score two points for each letter in the word.

Scoring a word with no stacked letters — The current player has played the word dish. Since none of the letters are stacked (they are all one tile high), the player scores two points per tile. They score eight points for the word.

If one or more of the letters in the word are two or more tiles high, you will score one point for each letter in the word. For stacked letters, you also score one point for each letter stacked beneath the top letter.

Scoring a word with a stacked letter — The current player created learn. The L is stacked on top of another letter. Since there is a stacked letter in the word, the player scores one point for each letter in the word. They will score five points for the visible letters, and an additional point for the letter below the L. The words scores a total of six points.

It is possible to play tiles in a way where you create two or more words. When this happens, you will score all of the words you created separately. Your score for the turn is equal to the points you score from both words.

Scoring two words in one turn — The current player played the word busy. The S was played on top of a T turning the word tablet to tables. The player ended up creating two different words on their turn. They will score points for both words. Busy scores five points, while tables scores seven points. They will score twelve points this turn.

Should you play the “Qu” tile as part of a word where all of the tiles are only one high, you score a bonus two points. If the “Qu” is part of a word where any of the letters are part of a stack, the “Qu” is only worth one point.

Scoring a word that uses Qu — The current player played the word queen. Since they used Qu in a word where none of the letters are stacked, they score two bonus points. The word scores them a total of ten points.

Should you use all seven of your letter turns in a turn, you will score an additional 20 point bonus.

Creating a word using all seven letters from rack — The current player has created the word trampled using all seven letters from their rack. They normally would score 16 points for the word, but will score an additional 20 point bonus for using all of their letters. They will score a total of 36 points for the word.

After you write down your score, you will draw new tiles until you have seven tiles in your rack again. The player on your left then takes the next turn.

Winning Upwords

The game can end in one of two ways.

A player plays all of the tiles from their rack and there are no tiles left to draw from the bag.
None of the players are able to make a new word. Basically all of the players pass their turn in consecutive order.

When the game ends, all of the players total the points they scored during the game. They will then subtract five points for each tile left on their rack. The player that scores the most points, wins Upwords.

Losing points for tiles left in rack — At the end of the game this player wasn’t able to use their u, or y tiles. They will lose five points for each tile for a total of ten points.

Solo Game

The solo game mostly follows the same rules as the main game. Instead of taking turns creating words, the solo player has to make all of the words one at a time.

After you have created a word, you will score points for it. You will then draw tiles until you have seven in your rack.

You may not exchange tiles at any time during the solo game.

The game ends in one of two ways. If you can play all of the tiles, you win the game. Otherwise the game ends when you can’t make another word with your current tiles. Total your score for the game. The goal of the solo game of Upwords is to score higher than any of your previous games.

Components

Gameboard
100 Letter Tiles
4 Tile Racks
Tile Bag
Instructions

Year: 1982 | Publisher: Hasbro, Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, Spin Master, Winning Moves Games | Designer: Elliot Rudell

Genres: Family, Tile Placement, Word

Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 60 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light-Moderate | Luck: Moderate

For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.