Recently I took part in a Scrabble tournament conducted in Infy, with basic English vocab and most importantly just for fun. Usually when played at home, we take our own sweet time to come up with the word which fetches the maximum points. But here, a time limit was kept such that each player gets only 15 mins and for every minute post the time limit, 10 points were deducted. And, there were only 2 players per game. A word could be challenged by the opponent, if he found it incorrect. And for every challenge, if the word turns to be in the 'Scrabble dictionary', the challenger would lose 5 points, and if not present, would gain 5 points. Now the funny part.. what is a 'Scrabble dictionary'?
All along till now, I had thought the standard English dictionary (generally of Oxford/Collins) would be the base for the words made. But I was surprised to know that the 'Scrabble dictionary' contains words other than the Oxford dictionary.
The Scrabble dictionary is made up of words contained in the Official Tournament and Club Word List or Tournament Word List, referred to as OTaCWL, OWL, or TWL based on the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (OSPD) and the SOWPODS word list. It has some crazy 2 letter words like - AA, AB, AD, AG, AI, DI, EH, FY, JA, JO KY, QI, ZA, ZO, and many more...
Among the 3 letter words, AAH, ADZ, AIA, AKA, AMA, BEZ, CUZ, QAT, QIS, RHY, SEZ, ZAS, ZAX, ZUZ, ZZZ, etc are absolutely valid words in Scrabble.
For 4 letter words, AITU, AJEE, AZYM, GEEZ, JEEZ, JYNX, JIZZ, QATS, QUAI, RAZZ, SJOE, YUNX, ZIZZ, ZZZS, etc etc.. too are valid words..!
I didn't know these words ever existed on earth. And worse, I wonder if they have any meaning!
Below is the wordlist provided by the Scrabble Association of India (also called the 'cheat sheet'). It would be good to have this as a reference the next time you play Scrabble!
Below is the wordlist provided by the Scrabble Association of India (also called the 'cheat sheet'). It would be good to have this as a reference the next time you play Scrabble!
You can also check the Scrabble word finder here.
A downloadable version can be found at zyzzyva.
To join the Indian Scrabble Association, visit indianscrabble.
Undoubtedly, English is a Funny Language...!
Undoubtedly, English is a Funny Language...!
