We use a word list referred to as SOWPODS. It was updated in May 2007 after Mattel did a deal with Collins. We have often heard people say things such as "that's not a word!" when they first see letter strings such as CRWTH, AA, EKPWELE, YRIVD, EUOUAE, TOKOLOSHE and GLUTAEI played on a Scrabble board. So we thought it would be worthwhile to devote a section of this website to explain the inclusion or exclusion of words that we play.

Having a word list is a great argument settler - actually it prevents arguments in the first place! Either its in or its not - there's no grey area. Acceptance of a word is not dependent upon knowing the definition, however, knowing the meaning of a word such as RENTIER is useful in knowing whether it takes an S at the end (as it would if it were a noun), or whether it is a comparative adjective.

What we like to gently point out to people who say "That's not a word!" is "What you really mean is that you do not know that word". ÿÿhere are a huge number of words in the Scrabble lexicon, and there would be very few people, even amongst the top Scrabble players, who would know the meanings of even HALF the words. Just because you have not heard of a word, doesn't mean it is not a word!

The beauty of this list is that you can get on the Internet and play with people in England, India, Bahrain or Swaziland and know that you are playing under the same set of rules and the same list of words. It also means that if you choose to play in an overseas tournament (as I did in the UK in 2003), you do not have to learn new words or unlearn words that are peculiar to Australia.

Some people find that it is frustrating playing a game in which the words have an unknown meaning - others couldn't care less and just want to know whether they are OK or not. We're more about encouraging people to improve their Scrabble game than expanding their general knowledge. However, if you would like to know the meanings of the allowable words and you can't find a reference to them in your home dictionary, I suggest that you try using a search engine such as www.google.com to find references to the word.

Every now and then, you come across a word that you think should be included in the list and its not there. Dictionary compilers can't be everywhere and I guess that in this event we should congratulate ourselves that we are at the leading edge of lexicon evolution. Maybe it will be included in the next update!

Be warned of players who have a tendency to make up meanings for words that they play. Be suspicious when someone slaps down a word such as AZULEJO on triple-word score for 122 points and casually says "oh yes, it's a small Mexican decorative ceramic tile" as if you should know it too. My advice is, if you're not sure it's a word, then "challenge"!!

Tony Hunt

Western Scrabble Network Coordinator