Typically, when people set out to learn bingo stems, they focus on the stem, and then learn the words for each letter that can make a bingo when combined with the stem. For instance, SATINE + A gives you entasia and taenias. Then you move onto SATINE + B for banties and basinet…and so forth. Eventually, you may learn all 69 words for the SATINE bingo stem. This is a perfectly legitimate and useful strategy. However, it is not the only way to learn your bingo stems.
What if you “transposed the matrix,” so to speak, and studied bingos for popular stems, one letter at a time. Take a look at the following table. It represents a table of all of the bingos for the five most popular six-letter bingo stems. Typically, people learn the words one COLUMN at a time. I’m suggesting, as an alternative, you think about learning one ROW at a time.
You can also learn some other interesting things by studying the following table. First, you get a sense of both the most popular stems, and the most popular letters across stems. The letter, G, shows the most flexibility as the seventh letter, scoring 28 bingos. Other popular letters include the D, T, and L. While the Y and the Q are the only letters that can’t be used to form any bingos across the five most popular stems. In earlier articles, I’ve discussed difficulties with C words and V words. When viewed from their usefulness in making bingos, they are not quite so bad. The C is good for 17 in this list, and the V comes in with a respectable 9.
Fig 1: Six-Letter Bingo Stem by Letter Matrix
| SATINE | SATIRE | RETINA | ARSINE | IRONES | # of Words | |
| A | entasia
taenias |
aristae
asteria artesia |
erasion | 6 | ||
| B | banties
basinet |
baiters
barites rebaits terbias |
6 | |||
| C | acetins
cineaste |
atresic
cristae raciest stearic |
ceratin
certain creatin tacrine |
arcsine
arsenic carnies |
coiners
cronies orceins recoins |
17 |
| D | destain
detains instead nidates sainted stained |
aridest
astride diaster disrate staider tardies tirades |
antired
detrain trained |
randies
sandier sardine |
dineros
indorse ordines rosined sardine |
24 |
| E | etesian | aeriest
seriate |
arenite
retinai trainee |
6 | ||
| F | fainest | fairest | fainter | infares | 4 | |
| G | easting
eatings ingates ingesta seating teasing |
aigrets
gaiters seagirt stagier triages |
granite
gratine ingrate tangier tearing |
earings
erasing gainers reagins regains reginas searing seringa |
eringos
ignores regions signore |
28 |
| H | sheitan
sthenia |
hastier | hairnet
inearth therian |
hernias | heroins
inshore |
9 |
| I | isatine | airiest | inertia | senarii | ironies
noisier |
6 |
| J | joiners
rejoins |
2 | ||||
| K | intakes | keratin | snakier | 3 | ||
| L | elastin
entails nailset salient saltine slainte tenails |
realist
retails saltier saltire slatier tailers |
latrine
ratline reliant retinal trenail |
aliners
nailers renails |
nerolis | 22 |
| M | etamines
inmates tameins |
imarets
maestri misrate smartie |
minaret
raiment |
marines
remains seminar |
merinos | 13 |
| N | inanest
stanine
|
anestri
antsier nastier ratines retains retinas retsina stainer stearin |
entrain | insaner
insnare |
14 | |
| O | atonies | erasion | erosion | 3 | ||
| P | panties
patines sapient spinate |
parties
pastier piaster piastre pirates traipse |
painter
pertain repaint |
paniers
rapines |
orpines | 16 |
| Q | 0 | |||||
| R | anestri
antsier nastier ratines retains retinas retsina stainer stearin |
artsier
tarries tarsier |
retrain
terrain trainer |
sierran | ironers | 17 |
| S | entasis
nasties seitans sestina tansies tisanes |
satires | anestri
antsier nastier ratines retains retinas retsina stainer stearin |
arsines | seniors
sonsier |
19 |
| T | instate
satinet |
artiest
artiste attires iratest ratites striate tastier |
intreat
iterant nattier tertain |
anestri
antsier nastier ratines retains retinas retsina stainer stearin |
norites
oestrin orients stonier |
26 |
| U | aunties
sinuate |
ruinate
taurine uranite urinate |
urinose | 7 | ||
| V | naivest
natives vainest |
vastier
veritas |
ravines | enviros
renvois version |
9 | |
| W | tawnies
waniest |
waister
waiters wariest wastrie |
tawnier
tinware |
snowier | 9 | |
| X | antisex
sextain |
2 | ||||
| Y | 0 | |||||
| Z | zaniest
zeatins |
2 |
I don’t comprehend the concept of the stem words, Can you clarify it.
Hi Roberta,
I’ll certainly try. Imagine you have the following letters in your rack: TANBIES
If you’ve studied the bingo stems, you might notice that you have SATINE + B. Once you realize that six of your letters are SATINE, then you will immediately realize you likely have a bingo, you just have to find it. Since your seventh letter is a B, then you have two seven letter word possibilities: basinet and banties. Now, all you have to do is find a place to play one of them on the board. You might not always have a place to play your bingo word, but you might.
The key to using bingo stems is to always inspect your rack to see if you happen to have one. Then, if you do, you know you likely have a seven letter word on your rack. Even if you haven’t memorized all of the words in the matrix, just knowing you might have a bingo opportunity will help you find it.
Let us know if we can clarify this concept better.
Happy playing.