peter P₃E₁T₁E₁R₁

Many readers know Peter as a name, but the playable word has two less familiar senses. A vein of ore can peter out, and in card play, to peter is to call for trump by discarding a high card while holding a lower one. The phrase “peter out” now applies more broadly to something that dwindles or fades away.

PETER at a glance

• PETER totals 7 Scrabble points: P is worth 3; E, T, E and R are worth 1 each.
• PETRE is PETER’s only anagram, using the same five tiles.
• Its four one-letter neighbours are METER, DETER, PATER and PETAR.
• Wordle accepts PETER as a guess, but it is not an answer.

What does PETER mean?

PETER means to dwindle or diminish to nothing, usually in the phrase “peter out.” The definition first described a vein of ore becoming depleted, then broadened to a general decline or trailing off. The mining sense gives the familiar phrase a picture of something fading gradually rather than stopping all at once.

There is also a card-playing sense: to peter is to call for trump by throwing away a high card while keeping a lower one. That specialist meaning is less familiar than “peter out,” so keep the two uses distinct when you look up the word.

What is the PETER Scrabble score?

PETER Scrabble score is 7 points before board bonuses. P supplies 3 points, while both E tiles, T and R add 1 each. Since P is the only tile worth more than 1, a letter bonus on P changes the total more than the same bonus on any of the other four tiles.

METER and DETER preserve the “-ETER” ending and change PETER’s first letter. PATER and PETAR alter an interior letter instead. PETRE is different: it rearranges the full set of tiles, so it fits an anagram clue rather than a one-letter neighbour clue.

PETER rhymes with words including BETTER, WATER and LETTER; the rhyme set has 12 entries. PETER appears in ENABLE, NWL2023 and Collins, but a dictionary entry does not settle every game dispute. Check the word list used by your game before challenging an opponent.