Definition of rough

"rough" in the noun sense

1. rough

the part of a golf course bordering the fairway where the grass is not cut short

"rough" in the verb sense

1. rough in, rough, rough out

prepare in preliminary or sketchy form

"rough" in the adjective sense

1. rough, unsmooth

having or caused by an irregular surface

"trees with rough bark"

"rough ground"

"rough skin"

"rough blankets"

"his unsmooth face"

2. rough

of persons or behavior) lacking refinement or finesse

"she was a diamond in the rough"

"rough manners"

3. approximate, approximative, rough

not quite exact or correct

"the approximate time was 10 o'clock"

"a rough guess"

"a ballpark estimate"

4. rocky, rough

full of hardship or trials

"the rocky road to success"

"they were having a rough time"

5. boisterous, fierce, rough

violently agitated and turbulent

"boisterous winds and waves"

"the fierce thunders roar me their music"- Ezra Pound

"rough weather"

"rough seas"

6. grating, gravelly, rasping, raspy, rough, scratchy

unpleasantly harsh or grating in sound

"a gravelly voice"

7. pugnacious, rough

ready and able to resort to force or violence

"pugnacious spirits...lamented that there was so little prospect of an exhilarating disturbance"- Herman Melville

"they were rough and determined fighting men"

8. rough

of the margin of a leaf shape having the edge cut or fringed or scalloped

9. rough, rocky, bumpy, jolty, jolting, jumpy

causing or characterized by jolts and irregular movements

"a rough ride"

10. uncut, rough

not shaped by cutting or trimming

"an uncut diamond"

"rough gemstones"

11. crude, rough

not carefully or expertly made

"managed to make a crude splint"

"a crude cabin of logs with bark still on them"

"rough carpentry"

12. rough

not perfected

"a rough draft"

"a few rough sketches"

13. harsh, rough

unpleasantly stern

"wild and harsh country full of hot sand and cactus"

"the nomad life is rough and hazardous"

14. harsh, rough

unkind or cruel or uncivil

"had harsh words"

"a harsh and unlovable old tyrant"

"a rough answer"

"rough" in the adverb sense

1. roughly, rough

with roughness or violence (`rough' is an informal variant for `roughly'

"he was pushed roughly aside"

"they treated him rough"

2. roughly, rough

with rough motion as over a rough surface

"ride rough"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

Princeton University "About WordNet®."
WordNet®. Princeton University. 2010.


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Quotations for rough

Much rust needs a rough file. [ Proverb ]

Over rough paths to the stars. [ Motto ]

Within the oyster's shell uncouth
The purest pearl may hide,
Trust me you'll find a heart of truth
Within that rough outside. [ Mrs. Osgood ]

Our rocks are rough, but smiling there
The acacia waves her yellow hair,
Lonely and sweet, nor loved the less
For flow'ring in a wilderness. [ Moore ]

Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the balm from an anointed king;
The breath of worldly men cannot depose
The deputy elected by the Lord. [ Rich. II ]

There's a Divinity that shapes our ends.
Rough-hew them as we will. [ William Shakespeare ]

Truth has rough flavors if we bite through. [ Mrs. Marian Lewes Cross (pen name George Eliot) ]

Not once or twice in our rough island story,
The path of duty was the way to glory. [ Tennyson ]

Chance will not do the work -
Chance sends the breeze;
But if the pilot slumber at the helm.
The very wind that wafts us towards the port
May dash us on the shelves.
The steersman's part is vigilance.
Blow it or rough or smooth. [ Sir Walter Scott ]

Oh, love forever lost,
And with it faith gone out! what is't remains
But duty, though the path be rough and trod
By bruised and bleeding feet? [ Lewis Morris ]

You must be content sometimes with rough roads. [ Proverb ]

Lied is a rough phrase; say he fell from truth. [ Browning ]

Sweet is the rose, but grows upon a brere;
Sweet is the juniper, but sharp his bough;
Sweet is the eglantine, but sticketh nere;
Sweet is the firbloome, but its branches rough;
Sweet is the cypress, but its rynd is tough;
Sweet is the nut, but bitter is his pill;
Sweet is the broome-flowre, but yet sowre enough;
And sweet is moly, but his root is ill.
[ Spenser ]

A rough diamond is better than the polished paste. [ Tupper ]

Such is the strength of art, rough things to shape. [ James HowelL ]

A diamond polished was first a diamond in the rough. [ G. W. Doane ]

Rough diamonds may sometimes be mistaken for pebbles. [ Sir Thomas Browne ]

Whoever may
Discern true ends will grow pure enough
To love them, brave enough to strive for them,
And strong enough to reach them, though the road be rough. [ E. B. Browning ]

Polished brass will pass upon more people than rough gold. [ Chesterfield ]

'Twas a hand
White, delicate, dimpled, warm, languid, and bland
The hand of a woman is often, in youth.
Somewhat rough, somewhat red, somewhat graceless, in truth;
Does its beauty refine, as its pulses grow calm,
Or as sorrow has crossed the life line in the palm? [ Lord Lytton ]

There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will. [ William Shakespeare ]

God defend me from the still water, and I'll keep myself from the rough. [ Proverb ]

Chaucer, I confess, is a rough diamond, and must be polished ere he shine. [ Dryden ]

Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds, shining qualities beneath a rough exterior. [ Juvenal ]

Even the rough rocks with tender myrtle bloom, and trodden weeds send out a rich perfume. [ Addison ]

No boy is well prepared for rough climbing, unless he is well shod with Christian principles.

Fate whirls on the bark, and the rough gale sweeps from the rising tide the lazy calm of thought. [ Bulwer-Lytton ]

Bores are not to be got rid of except by rough means. They are to be scraped off like scales from a fish. [ Bovee ]

Choose always the way that seems the best, however rough it may be. Custom will render it easy and agreeable. [ Pythagoras ]

Nobody contents himself with rough diamonds, or wears them so. When polished and set, then they give a lustre. [ Locke ]

One can never know at the first moment what may, at a future time, separate itself from the rough experience as true substance. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

In an audience of rough people a generous sentiment always brings down the house. In the tumult of war both sides applaud an heroic deed. [ T. W. Higginson ]

It is the vain endeavour to make ourselves what we are not that has strewn history with so many broken purposes and lives left in the rough. [ Lowell ]

There is no employment in the world so laborious as that of making to one's self a great name; life ends before one has scarcely made the first rough draught of his work. [ Bruyere ]

Liquid, flowing words are the choicest and the best, if language is regarded as music. But when it is considered as a picture, then there are rough words which are very telling, - they make their mark. [ Joubert ]

"No" is a surly, honest fellow--speaks his mind rough and round at once. "But" is a sneaking, evasive, half-bred, exceptuous sort of conjunction, which comes to pull away the cup just when it is at your lips. [ Scott ]

What money creates, money preserves: if thy wealth decays, thy honor dies; it is but a slippery happiness which fortunes can give, and frowns can take: and not worth the owning which a night's fire can melt, or a rough sea can drown. [ Quarles ]

Without woman, man would be rough, rude, solitary, and would ignore all the graces which are but the smiles of love. Woman weaves about him the flowers of life, as the vines of the forest decorate the trunk of the oak with their fragrant garlands. [ Chateaubriand ]

Nature's noblemen are everywhere, - in town and out of town, gloved and rough-handed, rich and poor. Prejudice against a lord, because he is a lord, is losing the chance of finding a good fellow, as much as prejudice against a ploughman because he is a ploughman. [ Willis ]

Life has no smooth road for any of us; and in the bracing atmosphere of a high aim, the very roughness only stimulates the climber to steadier and steadier steps, till that legend of the rough places fulfills itself at last, per aspera ad astra, over steep ways to the stars. [ Bishop W. C. Doane ]

Life has no smooth road for any of us; and in the bracing atmosphere of a high aim, the very roughness only stimulates the climber to steadier and steadier steps, till that legend of the rough places fulfills itself at last, "per aspera ad astra", over steep ways to the stars. [ Bishop W. C. Doane ]

A phlegmatic insensibility is as different from patience as a pool from a harbor; into the one, indolence naturally sinks us; but if we arrive at the other, it is by encountering many an adverse wind and rough wave, with a more skillful pilot at the helm than self, and a company under better command than the passions. [ L. W. Dilwyn ]

The little flower which sprung up through the hard pavement of poor Picciola's prison was beautiful from contrast with the dreary sterility which surrounded it. So here amid rough walls, are there fresh tokens of nature. And O, the beautiful lessons which flowers teach to children, especially in the city! The child's mind can grasp with ease the delicate suggestions of flowers. [ Chapin ]

The mother begins her process of training with the infant in her arms. It is she who directs, so to speak, its first mental and spiritual pulsations; she conducts it along the impressible years of childhood and youth, and hopes to deliver it to the rough contests and tumultuous scenes of life, armed by those good principles which her child has received from maternal care and love. [ D. Webster ]

The little flower which sprung up through the hard payment of poor Picciola's prison, was beautiful from contrast with the dreary sterility which surrounded it. So here, amid the rough walls, are there fresh tokens of nature; and oh, the beautiful lessons which flowers teach to children, especially in the city! The child's mind can grasp with ease the delicate suggestions of flowers. [ E. H. Chapin ]

It is particularly worth observation that the more we magnify, by the assistance of glasses, the works of nature, the more regular and beautiful they appear, while it is quite different in respect to those of art, for when they are examined through a microscope we are astonished to find them so rough, so coarse and uneven, although they have been done with all imaginable care, by the best workmen. [ Sterne ]

If the eye were so acute as to rival the finest microscope, and to discern the smallest hair upon the leg of a gnat, it would be a curse, and not a blessing to us; it would make all things appear rugged and deformed; the most finely polished crystal would be uneven and rough; the sight of our own selves would affright us; the smoothest skin would be beset all over with rugged scales and bristly hair. [ Bentley ]

I was walking in the street, a beggar stopped me, — a frail old man. His inflamed, tearful eyes, blue lips, rough rags, disgusting sores . . . oh, how horribly poverty had disfigured the unhappy creature! He stretched out to me his red, swollen, filthy hand. He groaned and whimpered for alms. I felt in all my pockets. No purse, watch, or handkerchief did I find. I had left them all at home. The beggar waited and his out-stretched hand twitched and trembled slightly. Embarrassed and confused, I seized his dirty hand and pressed it. Don't be vexed with me, brother; I have nothing with me, brother. The beggar raised his bloodshot eyes to mine; his blue lips smiled, and he returned the pressure of my chilled fingers. Never mind, brother, stammered he; thank you for this — this, too, was a gift, brother. I felt that I, too, had received a gift from my brother. [ Ivan Tourgueneff ]

rough in Scrabble®

The word rough is playable in Scrabble®, no blanks required.

Scrabble® Letter Score: 9

Highest Scoring Scrabble® Play In The Letters rough:

ROUGH
(39)
 

All Scrabble® Plays For The Word rough

ROUGH
(39)
ROUGH
(34)
ROUGH
(33)
ROUGH
(30)
ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
(10)
ROUGH
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ROUGH
(9)

The 173 Highest Scoring Scrabble® Plays For Words Using The Letters In rough

ROUGH
(39)
ROUGH
(34)
ROUGH
(33)
HOUR
(33)
ROUGH
(30)
ROUGH
(30)
ROUGH
(27)
ROUGH
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ROUGH
(27)
ROUGH
(26)
ROUGH
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HOUR
(24)
HOUR
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ROUGH
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HOUR
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HUG
(21)
HOUR
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HOUR
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HOUR
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HUG
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HUG
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UGH
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HOG
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HOG
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HOG
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UGH
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UGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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RHO
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RHO
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RHO
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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HOUR
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OH
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HOUR
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HUG
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UGH
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OH
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HOG
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UH
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UH
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ROUGH
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HUG
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HUG
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ROUGH
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HUG
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RHO
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HOG
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HOUR
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UGH
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UGH
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HOUR
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UGH
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HOG
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OH
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ROUGH
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UH
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HUG
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HOG
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UGH
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ROUGH
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RHO
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RHO
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RHO
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RUG
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HOUR
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RUG
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RUG
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UGH
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ROUGH
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HUG
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ROUGH
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HOUR
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UGH
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ROUGH
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HUG
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OH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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OH
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UH
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UH
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RHO
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UGH
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UH
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ROUGH
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UGH
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OUR
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HOG
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HOUR
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OH
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GO
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HUG
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HUG
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OUR
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GO
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HOUR
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OUR
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HOUR
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HOUR
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HOG
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HOUR
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RUG
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RUG
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HOUR
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UGH
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HOG
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OH
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UGH
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UH
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RHO
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HUG
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HOUR
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GO
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HOG
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RUG
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OUR
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OUR
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RHO
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OR
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GO
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UH
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OUR
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OH
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OR
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UH
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GO
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OH
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OUR
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GO
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RUG
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RUG
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OR
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OR
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OR
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OR
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OUR
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OUR
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GO
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OUR
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OR
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OR
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OUR
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GO
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OR
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rough in Words With Friends™

The word rough is playable in Words With Friends™, no blanks required.

Words With Friends™ Letter Score: 10

Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Plays In The Letters rough:

ROUGH
(48)
ROUGH
(48)
 

All Words With Friends™ Plays For The Word rough

ROUGH
(48)
ROUGH
(48)
ROUGH
(40)
ROUGH
(36)
ROUGH
(36)
ROUGH
(32)
ROUGH
(30)
ROUGH
(30)
ROUGH
(30)
ROUGH
(26)
ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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The 192 Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Plays Using The Letters In rough

ROUGH
(48)
ROUGH
(48)
ROUGH
(40)
HOUR
(39)
ROUGH
(36)
ROUGH
(36)
ROUGH
(32)
ROUGH
(30)
ROUGH
(30)
ROUGH
(30)
HOUR
(27)
ROUGH
(26)
ROUGH
(26)
HUG
(24)
UGH
(24)
UGH
(24)
UGH
(24)
HUG
(24)
HUG
(24)
ROUGH
(24)
ROUGH
(22)
ROUGH
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HOUR
(21)
HOG
(21)
HOG
(21)
HOUR
(21)
HOUR
(21)
HOG
(21)
HOUR
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ROUGH
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HOUR
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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ROUGH
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HUG
(20)
ROUGH
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HOG
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UGH
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RUG
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HOUR
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HUG
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UGH
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UGH
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ROUGH
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RHO
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RHO
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ROUGH
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UH
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UH
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HUG
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HOUR
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ROUGH
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HOG
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GO
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OH
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GO
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UH
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OR
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OH
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OR
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UH
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GO
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OH
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OR
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OR
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OUR
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OR
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OR
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OR
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Words within the letters of rough

2 letter words in rough (4 words)

3 letter words in rough (6 words)

4 letter words in rough (1 word)

5 letter words in rough (1 word)

rough + 1 blank (4 words)

Word Growth involving rough

Shorter words in rough

ugh

Longer words containing rough

borough boroughmongered

borough boroughmongerer boroughmongerers

borough boroughmongeries

borough boroughmongers

borough boroughs

brougham broughams

brought

drought droughts

roughage

roughback roughbacks

roughcast roughcasted

roughcast roughcaster roughcasters

roughcast roughcasting

roughcast roughcasts

roughdraft roughdrafted

roughdraft roughdrafting

roughdraft roughdrafts

roughdried

roughdries

roughdry roughdrying

roughed

roughen roughened

roughen roughener rougheners

roughen roughening

roughen roughens

rougher thorougher

roughest

roughhearted roughheartedness

roughhew roughhewed

roughhew roughhewer roughhewers

roughhew roughhewing

roughhew roughhewn

roughhew roughhews

roughhouse roughhoused

roughhouse roughhouser roughhousers

roughhouse roughhouses

roughhousing

roughing

roughly thoroughly

roughly throughly

roughneck roughnecked

roughneck roughnecker roughneckers

roughneck roughnecking

roughneck roughnecks

roughness thoroughness

roughs boroughs

roughs breakthroughs

roughs drivethroughs

roughs feedthroughs

roughs flowthroughs

roughs roughshod

roughs troughs eavestroughs

roughs troughs washtroughs

roughy

thorough thoroughbred thoroughbreds

thorough thorougher

thorough thoroughfare thoroughfares

thorough thoroughgoing

thorough thoroughly

thorough thoroughness

thorough thoroughwort thoroughworts

through breakthrough breakthroughs

through drivethrough drivethroughs

through feedthrough feedthroughs

through flowthrough flowthroughs

through seethrough

through throughbred

through throughfare throughfares

through throughly

through throughout

through throughput throughputs

through throughway throughways

through walkthrough

trough eavestrough eavestroughs

trough troughlike

trough troughs eavestroughs

trough troughs washtroughs

trough washtrough washtroughs

wrought handwrought

wrought overwrought

wrought unwrought

wrought wroughtiron