Category: Scrabble

On a recent Wordplay Day, some students said that they didn’t remember that place names that aren’t also common nouns aren’t playable in Scrabble. The list that follows includes place names, or toponyms, in the first half of the alphabet that are playable in Scrabble. Learning these words will broaden your vocabulary and up your game.

• afghan: a wool blanket
• alamo: a cottonwood poplar tree
• alaska: a heavy fabric
• berlin: a type of heavy fabric
• bermudas: a variety of knee-length, wide-legged shorts
• bohemia: a community of unconventional, usually artistic, people
• bolivia: a soft fabric
• bordeaux: a wine from the Bordeaux region
• boston: a card game similar to whist
• brazil: a type of tree found in Brazil used to make instrument bows (also brasil)
• brit: a non-adult herring
• cayman: a type of crocodile, also known as a spectacled crocodile (also caiman)
• celt: a type of axe used during the New Stone Age
• chile: a spicy pepper (also chili)
• colorado: used to decsribe cigars of medium strength and color
• congo: an eellike amphibian
• cyprus: a thin fabric
• dutch: referring to each pperson paying for him or herself
• egyptian: a sans serif typeface
• english: to cause a ball to spin
• french: to slice food thinly
• gambia: a flowering plant known as cat’s claw (also gambier, which is a small town in Ohio)
• geneva: gin, or a liquor like gin
• genoa: a type of jib (a triangular sail), also known as a jenny, first used by a Swedish sailor in Genoa
• german: also known as the german cotillon, an elaborate nineteenth-century dance
• greek: something not understood
• guinea: a type of British coin minted from 1663 to 1813
• holland: a linen fabric
• japan: to gloss with black lacquer
• java: coffee
• jordan: a chamber pot
• kashmir: cashmere
• mecca: a destination for many people

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, and review the posts on my blog devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.

Last week I published a blog post that listed the first twenty-two playable four-letter words with three vowels. Knowing those words, and others with multiple vowels, proves useful when you’re faced with a rack of mostly, or all, vowels. Here’s a list of the remaining fourteen playable four-letter words with three vowels:

• naoi: ancient temples (pl. of naos)
• obia: form of sorcery practiced in the Caribbean (also obeah)
• odea: concert halls (pl. of odeum)
• ogee: an S-shaped molding
• ohia: a Polynesian tree with bright flowers (also lehua)
• olea: corrosive solutions (pl. of oleum)
• olio: a miscellaneous collection
• ouzo: a Turkish anise-flavored liquor
• raia: a non-Muslim Turk (also rayah)
• roue: a lecherous old man
• toea: a currency in Papua, New Guinea
• unai: a two-toed sloth (pl. unai; an ai is a three-toed sloth)
• zoea: the larvae of some crustaceans

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Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website. Also review the posts on my blog devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.

For Halloween, today’s Scrabble blog post is devoted to words for ghosts. Two of the words (banshee and eidolon) are seven letters long, enabling a player or team to Scrabble, or bingo, earning an additional fifty points for the play. Another two are eight letters long (barguest and fairyism) and can be formed by adding letters to a word played previously.

• banshee: a female spirit in Gaelic folklore that wails to warn of a family member’s imminent death. Note that this word is featured in Stephen King’s short story “Strawberry Spring,” which we examined in class yesterday.
• barguest: a goblin (also barghest)
• bogy: a goblin
• daimon: a spirit (also daemon and demon)
• eidolon: a phantom or specter
• fairyism: the quality of being like a fairy (not really a ghost but a great word)
• haint: a ghost
• kelpie: a water sprite in Scottish folklore known for drowning sailors
• wraith: a ghost of a person, often appearing just before that person’s death
• zombi: a zombie 

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Next Up

At the beginning of class on Wednesday we will briefly review “Strawberry Spring,” and you will have the remainder of the period to continue your work on your final essay and annotated bibliography.

Knowing words with multiple vowels proves useful when you’re faced with a rack of mostly, or all, vowels. Here’s a list of the first twenty-two playable four-letter words with three vowels:

• aeon: a long period of time (also eon)
• agee: to one side (also ajee)
• agio: a surcharge applied when exchanging currency
• ague: a sickness associated with malaria
• ajee: to one side (also agee)
• akee: a tropical tree
• alae: wings (pl. of ala)
• alee: on the side shielded from wind
• amia: a freshwater fish
• amoa: a kind of small buffalo
• awee: a little while
• eaux: waters (pl. of eau)
• eide: distinctive appearances of things (pl. of eidos)
• emeu: an emu
• etui: an ornamental case
• euro: an Australian marsupial, also known as wallaroo, for being like the kangaroo and the wallaby; also a unified currency of much of Europe
• ilea: the terminal portions of small intestines (pl. of ileum)
• ilia: pelvic bones (pl. of ilium)
• jiao: a Chinese currency (also chiao)
• luau: a large Hawaiian feast
• meou: to meow
• moue: a pouting expression

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website. Also review the posts on my blog devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.

On a recent WordPlay day, a student remarked that he was unfamiliar with the word nth, which is used to describe an unspecified number. Learning nth and other all-consonant words that follow will enable you to continue the game when you’re faced with a rack without vowels.

• brr: used to indicate that one is cold
• crwth: an ancient stringed instrument (pl. -s)
• cwm: a cirque (a deep, steepwalled basin on a mountain, pl. -s, prounounced to rhyme with “boom”)
• hm: used to express thoughtful consideration (also “hmm“)
• mm: used to express assent or satisfaction
• nth: describing an unspecified number in a series
• phpht: used as an expression of mild anger or annoyance (also “pht“)
• psst: used to attract someone’s attention
• sh: used to urge silence (also “shh” and “sha“)
• tsk: to utter an exclamation of annoyance (-ed, -ing, -s)
• tsktsk: to “tsk” (-ed, -ing, -s)

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website. Also review the posts on my blog devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.

Today’s blog post is the final installment in the series of posts devoted to playable two-letter words. Learning these two-letter words, as well as the other two-letter words in the alphabet, will enable you to see more options for play and increase the number of points you earn in a single turn.

• qi: the central life force in Chinese culture (also ki)
• re: a tone of the diatonic scale
• sh: used to encourage silence
• si: a tone of the diatonic scale (also ti)
• so: a tone of the diatonic scale (also sol)
• ta: an expression of thanks
• ti: a tone of the diatonic scale
• to: in the direction of
• uh: used to express hesitation
• um: used to express hesitation
• un: one
• up: to raise (-s, -ped, -ping)
• us: a plural pronoun
• ut: the musical tone C in the French solmization system, now replaced by do
• we: a first-person plural pronoun
• wo: woe
• xi: a Greek letter
• xu: a former monetary unit of Vietnam equal to one-hundreth of a dong (also sau pl. xu)
• ya: you
• ye: you
• yo: an expression used to attract attention
• za: pizza

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website. Also review the posts on my blog devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.

In the previous weeks, I published blog posts featuring the playable two-letter words that begin with a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, and l. Today’s post features the playable two-letter words beginning with m, n, o, and p. Learning these two-letter words, as well as the other two-letter words in the alphabet, will enable you to see more options for play and increase the number of points you earn in a single turn.

M, by the way, is the most versatile consonant. In the first position, m pairs with every vowel: ma, me, mi, mo, mu, and also my. In the second position, m pairs with every vowel except i: am, em, om, um.

• ma: a mother
• me: a singular objective pronoun
• mi: a tone of the diatonic scale
• mm: an expression of assent
• mo: a moment
• mu: a Greek letter
• my: a first-person possessive adjective
• na: no, not
• ne: born with the name of
• no: a negative answer
• nu: a Greek letter
• od: a hypothetical force
• oe: a whirlwind off the Faero Islands
• of: originating from
• oh: an exclamation of surprise
• oi: an expression of dismay (also oy)
• om: a sound used as a mantra
• on: the batsman’s side in cricket
• op: a style of abstract art dealing with optics
• or: the heraldic color gold
• os: a bone
• ow: used to express pain
• ox: a clumsy person
• oy: an expression of dismay (also oi)
• pa: a father
• pe: a Hebrew letter
• pi: a Greek letter

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website. Also review the posts on my blog devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.

In the previous weeks, I published one blog post featuring playable two-letter words that begin with a and a second blog post featuring playable two-letter words that start with b, c, d, and e. Today’ s blog post features playable two-letter words beginning with f, g, h, i, j, k, and l. Learning these two-letter words, as well as the other two-letter words in the alphabet, will enable you to see more options for play and increase the number of points you earn in a single turn.

• fa: a tone on the diatonic scale
• fe: a Hebrew letter
• gi: a white garment worn in martial arts
• go: a Japanese board game
• ha: used to express surprise
• he: a pronoun signifying a male
• hi: an expression of greeting
• hm: used to express consideration
• ho: used to express surprise
• id: the least censored part of the three-part psyche
• if: a possibility
• in: to harvest (a verb, takes -s, -ed, -ing)
• is: the third-person singular present form of “to be”
• it: a neuter pronoun
• jo: a sweetheart
• ka: the spiritual self in ancient Egyptian spirituality
• ki: the vital life force in Chinese spirituality (also qi)
• la: a tone of the diatonic scale
• li: a Chinese unit of distance
• lo: an expression of surprise

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Competitive Scrabble

Last week some students asked whether Scrabble is played competitively. It is, and the culture of competitive Scrabble is documented in detail in journalist Stephan Fatsis’ Word Freak (2001). In his author’s note, Fatis outlines what distinguishes casual play from competitive Scrabble:

“A twenty-three-page game book governs everything from how to select tiles properly (the bag containing them must be held at eye level or higher) to what to do if a player needs to to go to the bathroom during a game (a situation that just happens to fall under Rule II P).”

Competitive Scrabble is a also the subject of a documentary film, Word Wars (2004).

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website. Also review the posts on my blog devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.

This week’s Scrabble post addresses some recent questions of yours regarding abbreviations and acronoyms and whether they are playable.

When a shortened version of a word comes into common use, it will likely find its way into the Scrabble Dictionary. Keep in mind, however, that an abbreviation you use may not have found its way into the Scrabble dictionary yet, and acronyms, unlike abbreviations, are not playable. Unlike shortened words, acronyms are formed with the initial letters of separate words, for example: NASA for (for National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and IQ (for intelligence quotient.

Here’s a list–by no means a comprensive one–of playable abbreviations:

• ab: an abdominal muscle
• bi: a bisexual
• cig: a cigarette
• flu: influenza
• hic: used to represent a hiccup
• hippo: a hippopotamus
• mono: mononucleosis
• narc: an undercover drug agent
• rec: recreation
• ref: a referee
• rhino: a rhinoceros
• ump: an umpire
• za: pizza

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Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, and review the posts on my blog devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.

The first Scrabble blog post of the semester featured the sixteen playable two-letter words beginning with “a.” Learning those two-letter words, as well as the others that follow in the alphabet, will enable you to see more options for play and increase the number of points you earn in a single turn.

Here’s a list of the playable words beginning with “b,” “d,” and “e.”

• ba: the soul in ancient Egyptian spirituality
• bi: a bisexual
• bo: a pal
• by: a side issue
• de: of; from
• do: a tone on a scale
• ed: education
• ef: the letter f (also eff)
• eh: used to express doubt
• el: an elevated train
• em: the letter m
• en: the letter n
• er: used to express hesitation
• es: the letter s
• et: a past tense of eat
• ex: the letter x

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Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, and review the posts on my blog devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.