You won't hear these Scrabble words in daily conversation. In fact, there is really only one reason to learn them. To Win at Scrabble!
Suppose near the end of a close game, you are leading by a small margin and decide to block the board to prevent your opponent from going out with a big score. To do this, you place a C in an awkward position 'knowing' that your opponent cannot make a parallel play. To your dismay, however, your opponent places their H under the C to form CH, for just enough points to devastate your plans!
The problem here was that although you knew it was time to play defensively and block the board, you did not realize that the board was not really blocked because you did not know the word CH (which, by the way, is a Scottish pronoun).
The lesson to take away is this...
Scrabble strategy sits on top of word knowledge, and therefore you must know lots of weird and wonderful Scrabble words before you worry about fine-tuning your strategic game. In other words, although both components of the game are very important, word knowledge is more urgent because strategy depends on it.
But what exactly are all the words allowed in Scrabble? I'm glad you asked...
Official Scrabble Words A Short Answer
Just what constitutes an allowable word in Scrabble can vary from place to place. Fortunately, you only have to worry about two of those places: North America, and the Rest of the World (United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and so on).
Why?
Because there are two owners of the Scrabble trademark, and each one has its own official word list. Your decision then is pretty simple...
Of course, if you want to play Scrabble online, or enter an international tournament, you might want to get your hands on a copy of both of these tomes.
Official Scrabble Words A Longer Answer
Many of the places you're likely to play Scrabble nowadays will use an 'official' Scrabble dictionary. However, depending on whether you're playing on Facebook, ISC, or in an official Scrabble tournament, you'll find different terms and acronyms used to describe the available dictionaries.
Since you'll have to agree on a Scrabble dictionary before starting a game, you should familiarize yourself with the official word lists you're most likely to be offered. Let me explain the most important options you're likely to come across...
Collins Scrabble Words — The official word list sanctioned by Mattel and WESPA and used in most countries outside of North America. Unlike its North American counterparts, CSW contains all valid Scrabble words from 2 to 15 letters in length. The dictionary containing CSW along with all the definitions is called Collins Official Scrabble Dictionary.
CSW is often described as British, for historical reasons, but should really be thought of as the official International Scrabble Dictionary.
A second edition of CSW has not yet been published, so no version number is needed. A new version of CSW is due out in 2011, but it hasn't yet been christened with an official title.
Official Scrabble Players Dictionary — A North American dictionary containing all allowable Scrabble words up to 8 letters long. It also includes longer words if they are inflections of words having 8 letters or fewer. This dictionary is designed for family and school play and so does not contain 'offensive' words (although the 'box rules' do not forbid the use of offensive words).
The latest version of this dictionary is called OSPD4.
The older, but still well-entrenched, name for the combined lexicon of British and North American words. It is formed as a pronounceable anagram of OSW (the old British lexicon) and OSPD. You can think of SOWPODS as a popular, but slightly old-fashioned, name for the more modern CSW.
SOWPODS does not have a version number. People just assume you're talking about the latest version.
Tournament Word List — A North American lexicon which is basically the unexpurgated version of the OSPD (i.e. it contains all the naughty words!). Actually, TWL also contains all the allowable 9 letter words and their inflections, making it considerably more comprehensive than the OSPD.
TWL is the official word list for Scrabble games played in formally sanctioned North American clubs and tournaments. In fact, you'll occasionally see TWL called OTaCWL, because its full name is actually Official Tournament and Club Word List. Confusingly, the longer name has also been abbreviated to OWL in some places (the popular Scrabble helper Zyzzyva uses this acronym, for example.)Unlike CSW, TWL needs to be supplemented with another official list for adjudicating words of 10-15 letters in length. This additional list is called, naturally enough, the Long Word List (LWL).
The most recent version of TWL is called TWL06 or, equivalently, OWL2.
Unfortunately, Scrabble games made for personal computers, iPhones, and other electronic devices, often don't tell you the dictionary they are using, so it takes a bit of experimentation to work it out. (Worse still, the built-in dictionaries are often riddled with errors!)
To see whether a built-in Scrabble dictionary is International or North American, I usually just test it with the word ZO (a Tibetan yak), which is not allowed in North America. If the dictionary is North American, you can further distinguish between OSPD and TWL by just entering your favorite offensive word. Let's face it, you were going to do that anyway, right? ;-)
Scrabble Word Lists
If you're serious about winning at Scrabble, no matter how strategically brilliant you might be, you simply must sit down at some stage and learn hundreds (preferably thousands!) of words.
The best way to do this is to organize words into lists, each of which should have some kind of strategic importance. So here are some lists of very important Scrabble words to get you started. Each of the following links will take you to a page of useful words with a preamble explaining why you should learn them...
Well, I did call this page 'Scrabble Words from AA to ZZZ', so...
Let's get a feel for the sorts of weird and wonderful words that are allowed in Scrabble. Below is a list containing an interesting and unusual Scrabble word for each letter of the alphabet. I'll give a brief definition here, but if I've talked about a word in more detail elsewhere at Word-Buff I'll format the word as a link...
n. The formal name used to describe the chemical element with atomic number 111 until its existence is confirmed, at which point it will be given 'proper' name.
If you've got a soft spot for quirky words and competitive word games, don't forget to take a few moments to subscribe to Word-Buff Stuff!, a FREE Newsletter I distribute with this website.
Actually, if you click on REREDOS, from my AA-to-ZZZ list above, you'll see what a typical issue of Word-Buff Stuff! is like. Just interesting stuff about words, games, and the people who play them...
