Hot SCRABBLE Posts
News: New WESPA Ratings System Launched for World Tournament Scrabble
WESPA, the World English-Language Scrabble Players Association, has released its first major overhaul of the ratings system since inception,. Several known issues faced by the old system have been remedied, with the new system available online through Aardvark. The changes make ratings fairer, particularly for new players in the system.
Possible Scrabble Challenge: Creating Poetry From All the Tiles
Now here's a challenge for the above-average Scrabble fan - can you create a good poem out of all the tiles, in iambic pentameter? The poem that's created here doesn't make too much sense, but it does sounds really pretty if you read it out loud. Scrabble Tile Poem.
News: Faucet Sculpture Spews Out Scrabble Tiles
This is art at its finest. Portland sculptor Ron Ulicny created this faucet sculpture that spews out Scrabble tiles. It's simply called "Spew". Genius. It's just one of the many sculptures he's made repurposing ordinary objects and materials into new and unexpected things.
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: CABRESTA
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: CABRESTA [n/pl.] A cabresta (also cabestro or cabresto) is simply a lasso, a rope formed with a running noose that's used on ranches and Western plains for catching horse and cattle. Cabresta comes from the Spanish word halter, which refers to the headgear used for leading or tying up livestock and other animals. But halter also used to mean to hang someone by roped noose, which could be how it became popular as a term for a noosed lasso.
News: Two letter words for portuguese scrabble players
Here are some words i grabbed from Porto Editora's 2011 dictionary: Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Here they are:
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: FINNESKO
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: * FINNESKO [n/pl.] A finnesko is a boot made of tanned reindeer skin, with the reindeer's fur on the outside. It's an especially good, warm boot for subarctic regions. These boots originate from the Sami, indigenous people from the cultural region of Sápmi, located across four countries in the Arctic Circle; Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. This area is also referred to as Fennoscandia.
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: LUMINARIA
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: LUMINARIA [n]
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: HELLEBORE
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: HELLEBORE [n] A hellebore is any of the approximately 20 plants from the genus Helleborus, many of which are poisonous. Hellebores are herbaceous perennial flowering plants from Eurasia related to the buttercup family, having showy flowers with petaloid sepals.
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: CAGANER
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: * CAGANER [n] A caganer is a small figurine of a person defecating in place, pants humorously around the character's ankles. It's a traditional Christmas decoration in Catalonia, Spain and in neighboring areas, where it's placed within the nativity scene.
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: DAUBERY
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: DAUBERY [n] An unskillful painting or work, one that is executed in a messy or inexpert way. Since art is highly subjective, I won't point out any dauberies. You probably already have a few in mind.
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: MIASMIC
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: MIASMIC [adj] Miasmic is an adjective for miasm (or miasma), which means a noxious vapor—"bad air" harmful to health. The word miasma comes from the ancient Greek word for pollution. And the concept of bad air also gave rise to the name malaria, from old Italian "mala" (bad) "aria" (air).
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: NOSEGAY
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: NOSEGAY [n] A nosegay is simply a bouquet of flowers, typically given as gifts. It comes from Middle English, from the words nose and gay, which in this case means brightly colored and showy. It does not reference homosexuality; the modern sense of gay.
News: Last Minute Word-o-phile Stocking Stuffer
From Fred Flare, a Scrabble refrigerator magnet set.
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: TRAVOISE
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: TRAVOISE [n] Today's word is in honor of Joel Sherman, whose record-breaking game last weekend netted him seven bingo plays, one of which was TRAVOISE. A travoise is a type of sled, but no… it's not like a toboggan or snow sleigh. Though it can be, it's not used primarily on snow, but on any soft ground, like forest floors and gentle soils.
News: Joel Sherman Breaks Scrabble Record with 803-Point Game
What's your highest scoring game of Scrabble? Since starting this Scrabble World, I've been able to break 500 points on a regular basis. This year I've even managed to break the 600-point barrier a couple times. If you ask me, that's a pretty hefty sum to score in one game, but I'm not on par with the professionals yet.
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: DHOURRA
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: DHOURRA [n]
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: GRUYERE
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: GRUYERE [n] One of the most famous types of cheeses made in Switzerland, made from the milk of a cow. It's a hard yellow cheese named from its town of origin, Gruyère. The cheese can be spelled with or without the grave accent (`) on the è, though in the United States it's usually without.
News: Alec Baldwin Kicked Off Plane for Playing Words with Friends
Alec Baldwin loves word games? Enough to get kicked off an airplane? Apparently. Yesterday, while sitting in first class on his American Airlines flight back to New York from LAX, a flight attendant "reamed" him off the plane for playing the popular Scrabble clone, Words with Friends, and not turning off his phone and obeying signs requiring seat beats. Apparently, the aircraft was still at the gate and unmoving. His tweet:
Scrabble Challenge #18: Can You Win at Scrabble Rack Attack?
As touched upon in the past, knowing all of the possible words you can play is key to being a better Scrabble player. If you don't have the vocabulary, then you can't compete against the best of the best, and you'll never even get the chance to spar against professionals such as Nigel Richards, Joe Edley, Andrew Fisher, and Wayne Kelly.
News: 500 Scrabble Tiles and Miranda July, Craigslist Reseller
What happens when a struggling writer cannot finish the screenplay to her second film? She writes a book.
Scrabble Challenge #17: How Many Words Can You Find in TURKEY?
The big day may be over, but the weekend is still full of Thanksgiving spirit. And so is this week's puzzle. But let's keep it short this time, because we should all be taking this time to play a real game of Scrabble with friends and family. I was thinking of making a puzzle about edible birds in general, but practically every bird is edible, meaning there's a lot of avian-related words. Since the turkey is such a big part of Thanksgiving, let's just stick to that...
News: W.E.L.D.E.R. Blends Bejeweled, Boggle and Scrabble into Word-Building Addiction
There are tons of mobile apps out there for the gaming logophile, but there's a new word building game taking over iPhones and iPads, and it not only wants you to have fun, it wants you to fight back in the "war against words". It's the Word Examination Laboratory for Dynamic Extraction and Reassessment. But you can just call it W.E.L.D.E.R. Since its release earlier this month, W.E.L.D.E.R. has developed quite a following with its addicting mesh of Bejeweled, Boggle and Scrabble gameplay. It...
Scrabble Challenge #16: Finding 6-Letter Words in 7-Letter Words
Being able to spell a seven-letter word on the board is one of the most enjoyable things about playing Scrabble. It's even better when those seven letters are all from your rack, giving you a bingo—those 50 bonus points in addition to your regular score.
Scrabble Challenge #15: What Would Be Your First Move in Words with Friends?
The concept of Scrabble and Words with Friends is the same—play words, score points, win. But the games require different strategy in terms of letter placement, premium squares, tile point values and word choices. Here's the main differences between the two games.
Scrabble Challenge #14: Which Variant Word Wins the Game (And Which Doesn't)?
Nearly every game takes strategy to win, but when it comes to games like Scrabble and Words with Friends, you've also got to have a lexically inclined mind full of wonderful and weird words. Most start out by learning all of the two-letter words in the Scrabble dictionary, then work their way up to three-letter words. But where do you go from there?
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: ZEPHYRS
ZEPHYRS n sing. ZEPHYR gentle breezes 74 points (24 points without the bingo)
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: SHAITAN
SHAITAN n pl. -S an evil spirit 60 points (10 points without the bingo)
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: WENDIGO
WENDIGO n pl. -GOS windigo 62 points (12 points without the bingo)
Scrabble Bingo Weekly Roundup: Creepy, Deadly Words for Halloween
Pumpkins, murderers, vampires, zombies, ghosts, witches, death… these are all the subjects of last week's Scrabble Bingo of the Days, which focused on words associated with Halloween and horror movies. Did you know there was actually a name for someone who suffocated another person? Did you know that Frankenstein, vampires, and ghosts can all be considered one thing? Did you know that there was actually a word for rotten dead flesh?
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: BANSHIE
BANSHIE n pl. -S banshee 62 points (12 points without the bingo)
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: GRAMARYE
GRAMARYE n pl. -S occult learning; magic 64 points (14 points without the bingo)
Scrabble Challenge #13: Can You Find the Best Halloween Bingo Play, Plus a 765-Point Killer?
Halloween is just a few days away, and since I've been churning out the creepy Bingo of the Days for everyone the past few weeks, it seems fitting to do a puzzle based on them.
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: CARRION
CARRION n pl. -S dead and putrefying flesh 59 points (9 points without the bingo)
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: CREMAINS
CREMAINS n/pl the ashes of a cremated body 62 points (12 points without the bingo)
News: Scrabble Beats Words with Friends to NOOK Color
Electronic Arts (EA) and Hasbro have always been a little slow at adapting Scrabble for the cyber culture. They failed to beat Scrabulous to the Facebook market by a whole year, but managed to save face by targeting the mobile market, specifically iPhone and iPod touch, making Scrabble one of the very first mobile apps in the iTunes App Store.
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: REVENANT
REVENANT n pl. -S one that returns 61 points (11 points without the bingo)
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: BURKITE
BURKITE n pl. -S a burker 63 points (13 points without the bingo)
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: CUCURBIT
CUCURBIT n pl. -S a gourd 64 points (14 points without the bingo)
Scrabble Bingo Weekly Roundup: Coxswain, Hexerei and Mimesis
Halloween will be here in just over a week, which means next week these Scrabble Bingo of the Days will become more horrific. This week, there's just a few relevant Halloween seven-letter words for your Scrabble vocabulary, referencing witchcraft and one of the eeriest horror movies of all time, The Thing (not this year's version).
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: UTILIDOR
UTILIDOR n pl. -S an insulated system of pipes for use in arctic regions 59 points (9 points without the bingo)