EXCEPT unscrambled

E1X8C3E1P3T1

These 6 tiles spell 16 words, the longest running 6 letters, including 2 anagrams that use every letter.

Full anagrams of EXCEPT

All 2 of these use every one of your 6 tiles — the complete rearrangement most puzzles are asking for.

Longest first, alphabetical within each length. The small number is the word's tile score. Tap any word to unscramble it in turn.

Unlike the list above, these depend on the order you typed: each one is sitting in the spelling already, left to right, with nothing rearranged.

Add a single blank and the same rack reaches 298 more words, up to 7 letters. Here are the longest of them.

2 vowels and 4 consonants — a balanced rack, which is where the longest words usually come from.

Face value of the full rack: 17 points.

The E: The most common letter in English and the most common in valid words. An E-heavy rack almost always spells something.
The C: Needs a partner. C rarely stands alone in short words; pair it with an H or a vowel and it opens up quickly.
The X: Rarely starts a word and almost never ends one. Look for it in the middle, or in the short standbys AX, EX, OX, XI.

Drop a tile and solve the rest. Each link runs the same search on the remaining letters.