← PDX Scrabble Home  ·  Word Lists

Stems — Top 25 by Playability

What is an anamonic? An anamonic is a memory aid for a high-probability Scrabble rack. Each entry has three parts: a stem (a 6–7 letter combination likely to appear on your rack), a primary word you can play directly from those letters, and a mnemonic phrase to help you remember that word. For example, the stem AEINRT has primary word RETINA and mnemonic “the red pupil prefers much winking.” This means that all the letters in that phrase can be added to RETINA to make a word.

How to use this page. Study the stems in playability order. For each stem, memorize the mnemonic so you can recall the primary word when those letters appear on your rack. Then click the word link to open the full extension table, which shows every valid 7–8 letter word you can form by adding one letter to the stem. Learning the extensions turns a single memory hook into a whole family of bingos. The audio link plays an MP3 that spells the stem, speaks the primary word and mnemonic, then reads each extension group aloud — useful for study away from a screen.

What does the asterisk (*) mean? An asterisk is used to indicate that one should ignore vowels in the anamonics. So the anamonic for "OATIES" is "*monopolized toke" - you should only add the letters "MNPLZDTK" to OATIES to form words.

#Stem / WordMnemonicStudyAudio
1AEINRT
RETINA
the red pupil prefers much winkingRETINA (56 ext.)
2ADEINO
AID-ONE
*ex czar saved meAID-ONE (9 ext.)
3ADEIOR
ROADIE
sax vandalROADIE (9 ext.)
4AEILNO
EOLIAN
star parkaEOLIAN (8 ext.)
5AEIOST
OATIES
*monopolized tokeOATIES (12 ext.)
6AENORT
ATONER
punch smug subATONER (15 ext.)
7EINORT
ORIENT
just snug pub cultORIENT (18 ext.)
8AEEINT
TENIAE
baklava slams starTENIAE (12 ext.)
9AEEIRT
RETIE-A
*small mantrapRETIE-A (13 ext.)
10EEINOR
ONE-IRE
*real ire, i hopeONE-IRE (5 ext.)
11ADEINR
RAINED
didn't pour much, but had a vigorous soundRAINED (29 ext.)
12ADEINT
DETAIN
visit fir dumpDETAIN (21 ext.)
13ADEIRT
TIRADE
baklava sprang mythsTIRADE (31 ext.)
14AEILNR
NAILER
vexes spock mightilyNAILER (31 ext.)
15AEILNT
TENAIL
keeps mover gruffTENAIL (27 ext.)
16AEILRT
RETAIL
chumpy lender turns bucksRETAIL (37 ext.)
17AEINRS
ARSINE
forgiving disjoint childish milk plotARSINE (44 ext.)
18AEINST
TISANE
makes excellent herb tea; gives food a powerful jive buzzTISANE (73 ext.)
19AEIRST
SATIRE
bad speech review--flaming witSATIRE (73 ext.)
20AINORT
RATION
job: cup wood goodsRATION (12 ext.)
21AEINORT
AIR-TONE
plans batch: razz dadAIR-TONE (25 ext.)
22ADENOR
DOE-RAN
grim public crudDOE-RAN (15 ext.)
23ADENOT
DONATE
zoo volts cops dogDONATE (10 ext.)
24ADEORT
ORATED
but plug's luckORATED (17 ext.)
25AELNOT
TOLANE
divvy my big chipsTOLANE (16 ext.)