The dock contains all the tiles you can add to your city. As you build verbs, the rate at which new letters will be produced increases.

Nouns (in beige) serve as homes for your city. Building them will allow your population to increase, giving you more citizens to employ in your verbs.

Verbs (in orange) serve as workplaces for your city. Building them will allow you to employ more citizens, and thereby increase the rate at which you produce new letters.

As your letters level up the citizens living there will demand additional services, such as health care or utilities.

Building adjectives and adverbs will level up your nouns and verbs respectively. Higher level letters can house/employ more citizens and also can be taxed to earn money.

On some missions you may need to build turrets to defend your city from invaders. They can be upgraded into three varieties: Gun, Freeze, and Spray.

On some missions your city will be under the threat of invasions. These will come in regular waves, and you will have to build turrets to cover your letters.

As you build words your city level will increase, giving you access to great new abilities, like refilling your dock or doubling the value of your next word.