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What is the longest -1 word (or the word worth most in Scrabble for words with the same amount of letters (which is just the addition of all the letter values of the original 'word', no constraints)), where a -1 word is defined as:

  • This 'word' does not have to be an actual word, just a string of letters.
  • one can replace each and every letter in the 'word' with another letter to create a word that appears in the dictionary.com database.

An example of a -1 word would be "gub," and the replacements one could make would be "rub," "gob," and "gun."

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  • $\begingroup$ Could you explain example more? For each word you calculate a number according to sum formula? what is this formula and how do you get -1 for gub? $\endgroup$
    – klm123
    Dec 27, 2015 at 15:36
  • $\begingroup$ @klm123 I think you misunderstand, '-1 word' is a title for a type of word defined as above $\endgroup$
    – awesomepi
    Dec 27, 2015 at 15:44
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    $\begingroup$ @klm123 I was confused at first as well, but it's just a string where you can replace any one of its characters and have it be an actual word afterwards $\endgroup$
    – DrunkWolf
    Dec 27, 2015 at 15:50
  • $\begingroup$ @DrunkWolf No, you need to be able to do that to every single letter - I'll change that. $\endgroup$
    – awesomepi
    Dec 27, 2015 at 16:05
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    $\begingroup$ @DrunkWolf What is irrelevant? If we're placing the word on an actual Scrabble board then the spacing of high value letters matters. If we get the bingo bonus, then a 7+ letter word with fewer edit 1 distance words will likely beat an 6- letter word with many edit 1 distance words. $\endgroup$
    – Dave
    Dec 28, 2015 at 4:46

3 Answers 3

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Here's a 7-letter -1 word:

PASTERS (English word, score: 9)

MASTERS
POSTERS
PATTERS
PASSERS
PASTORS
PASTELS
PASTERN

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    $\begingroup$ I was concerned that your word really was a word, but the rules do allow for that. $\endgroup$
    – Joel Rondeau
    Dec 28, 2015 at 18:30
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Ok, let's get the ball rolling with a simple 5-letter word:

SLOPS

With the changed words being:
FLOPS
STOPS
SLAPS
SLOTS
SLOPE

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7 letters, score 13

There are no 8 to 15 letter solutions using SOWPODS. The best word which is valid with both SOWPODS and dictionary.com scores 13:

POPPIES

KOPPIES
PAPPIES or PUPPIES
POTPIES
POPSIES
POPPLES
POPPITS
POPPIED

NB SOWPODS gives more options for some of the positions, but the above list is filtered against dictionary.com.

There is a 15-pointer in SOWPODS, but it isn't valid against dictionary.com:

PICKIES

DICKIES, HICKIES, MICKIES, SICKIES, *BICKIES, *TICKIES, *WICKIES
POCKIES
PINKIES, *PISKIES
*PICCIES
PICKLES
*PICKINS
PICKIER

* Not in dictionary.com

There is only one other 7-letter answer, which Miles has already given.

Bonus challenge

The highest scoring word is only 4 letters and scores 25. What is it?

FUZZ

BUZZ
FIZZ
FUTZ
FUZE

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