kitchen K₅I₁T₁C₃H₄E₁N₁

The ordinary meaning is the room where food is prepared, but KITCHEN has a few less familiar uses too. It can mean a style of cooking, and in orchestral language it can refer to the percussion section. Its seven letters also make a distinctive word-game entry: the K and H account for more than half of its base Scrabble score.

KITCHEN at a glance

• KITCHEN has seven letters and scores 16 points before any board bonuses.
• THICKEN and CHETNIK are the two anagrams made from the same letters.
• KITCHEN has two vowels, I and E, against five consonants: K, T, C, H and N.
• The rhyme list contains 12 words, including WHEN, THEN, FRESHEN and LENGTHEN.
• The familiar meaning is a room or area used to prepare food.

Why does KITCHEN score 16 points?

KITCHEN’s base Scrabble value is 16: K is worth 5, H is worth 4, and C adds 3. The other four tiles, I, T, E and N, are worth 1 point each. That makes the K and H the scoring anchors, so a premium letter square under either one changes the turn more than a bonus under a common tile.

THICKEN is the familiar rearrangement: it keeps every tile and turns the letters into a verb. CHETNIK is the other anagram, but it is much less familiar to many players. An anagram match does not guarantee acceptance in every game, so check your game’s word list before playing an unfamiliar option.

What does KITCHEN mean besides a cooking room?

KITCHEN can also mean a cuisine or style of cooking, as in a description of a region’s food. A separate musical sense names an orchestra’s percussion section. Those meanings are less likely in everyday conversation than the room for food preparation, but they explain why the word appears in more than one kind of text.

The rhyme set is unusually varied for a word ending in the sound of “hen.” WHEN and THEN are short, familiar choices; FRESHEN and LENGTHEN are longer, while HEATHEN and TOUGHEN offer different consonant openings.