A hook word is one letter away from a shorter word already on the board. Add that letter to the front or the back and you've built a whole new, playable word. Knowing a handful of common hooks by heart means you can score off a word your opponent just played, not only the ones you build yourself.
A front hook adds a letter before a word: S + CAT = SCAT. A back hook adds one after: CAT + S = CATS. Either way, exactly one letter changes hands, which is what makes hooks worth memorizing instead of working out fresh every time you see one.
AT → BAT, CAT, EAT, FAT, HAT, MAT, PAT, RAT, SAT. EAR → BEAR, DEAR, FEAR, GEAR, HEAR, NEAR, PEAR, WEAR, YEAR. A short, common word is often hiding inside a longer one this way, so it's worth scanning your letters for a hookable core before writing a rack off as unplayable.
CAT → CATS, CATE. WORK → WORKS, WORKED. PLAY → PLAYS, PLAYED, PLAYER. BAT → BATS, BATH. An S is the most reliable back hook in the game: almost any noun on the board is one plural away from a fresh play.
A hook is often the fastest points available. You're not building a word from scratch, you're extending one that's already there, and that usually costs a single tile. Want to check a specific word? Search it on the unscrambler and open its Hooks panel to see every front and back hook it has.
