Placement of tiles when making more than one word

by Jackie
(New Jersey)

My son says that in professional Scrabble matches he has seen on television, players are allowed to put down tiles adjacent to a word that is already on the board, provided the first tile makes two words (horizontal and vertical)

I never played with that rule. Is that actually true?

Hi Jackie - If I am interpreting you correctly, you are asking if 'parallel plays' are ok in Scrabble, provided the perpendicular letters make valid words.

If that is what you mean, the answer is absolutely yes!

In fact, parallel plays like this are a big part of the game since they enable you to really boost the score of a word.

To show you what I mean, I've added a picture (above) of a really impressive play made in a Scrabble tournament a few years back.

First EBONITE was played, and then the next player placed BOLIXED above it, forming seven two-letter words in the process. (This game was played to the Official International Scrabble Dictionary, by the way!)

I hope this answers your question, but if not, just use the comments link below this post to continue the thread.

All the best,