SCRABBLE Features


News: SCRABBLE Expert Breaks Record
What's the highest score you ever achieved in one SCRABBLE game? 500? 600? 700?

SCRABBLE, Sex & Wine: How One Man Gets the Girls in Bed
SCRABBLE may seem like a board game for word nerds only, but believe it or not, SCRABBLE can be used to lure thousands of hot women into your bed... at least that's what Clive Worth claims.

News: The Likeliness of Two Identical Scrabble Hands
What are the odds of drawing the same seven letters, e.g. JANITOR, twice during a lifetime of playing Scrabble—in two separate games. Michael Thelen, who runs Zyzzyva, breaks down the numbers.

How To: Play the game Scrabble to broaden your vocabulary
What's a good way to learn the English language? Scrabble! What's a fun and irresistible word board game the whole family can enjoy? Scrabble! What's the best way to show off your smarts to your friends? Scrabble!

SCRABBLE Facts: Butts, Boards & Blasphemies
SCRABBLE was invented by Alfred Mosher Butts, an architect in New York, in an attempt to make a word game that combined anagrams and crosswords, which involved chance, luck and a great degree of skill. Together, Butts and game-loving entrepreneur James Brunot, refined the game and made the games by hand, stamping letters on wooden tiles on at a time. They eventually came up with the name SCRABBLE, which means "to grope frantically."

Scrabble Challenge #19: Would You Rather Play a Phoney or a Phoney-Looking Word?
Bluffing is one of the key components of poker. You may have a horrible hand, but if you can play it cool and raise the bet, you might just be able to convince your opponents otherwise and induce a few folds. But if you can't handle a little subterfuge, then you shouldn't be playing the game. Even the slightest tell could give you away. You have to maintain a poker face, no matter what.

How To: Get an Official SCRABBLE Rating to Play in Tournaments
Many new players wonder how one actually gets a rating in SCRABBLE. Now, we're talking about an official rating, not one you would get on SCRABBLE Beta or with the ISC WordBiz player — I mean an "Official SCRABBLE Rating". A rating that allows you to play in the National SCRABBLE Championship (NSC), which is held once every year (sometimes two).

News: Vintage Edition Scrabble
Now this is a perfect gift for a SCRABBLE addict.

News: Possible New SCRABBLE Words?
QI and ZA. QI n pl. -S the vital force that in Chinese thought is inherent in all things

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.

News Alert: Scrabble Makes You Smarter
Listen up Scrabblers... you finally have something to brag about besides knowing what MUZJIK is, and if you think it's elevator music, put those tiles back in the bag and pack up your Scrabble board because this doesn't apply to you.

How To: Answer to Scrabble Challenge #20
It's sad to say, but I will no longer be writing up anymore Scrabble Challenges. Frankly, I just don't have the time to make them now. And though they are incredibly fun and "challenging" to conjure up, I'm not sure that people are finding them as useful as I had hoped. But really, it all comes down to time. So, unless I have a future craving for puzzle-making, last week's Scrabble Challenge #20 was the last one.

News: SCRABBLE Furniture
Have a few old junk SCRABBLE boards, but don't want to throw them away? Recycle them!

Scrabble Bingo of the Day: ZEBRASS
ZEBRASS 68 points (18 points without the bingo) Definition: the offspring of a zebra and an ass [n]

SCRABBLE Evolution: From Boards & Brew to Pockets & Programs to Cheats & Cheating
SCRABBLE. I miss it.

"Pi" meets SCRABBLE: A Metaphysical Religious Journey of Words & Numbers (CRAZIEST)
For as long as I've loved SCRABBLE, I can't believe I've never come across this before. "CRAZIEST" - A short story by Liz Dubelman about words

News: Would You Play CLITORIS Against Your Grandmother?
Comic by xkcd

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.
News: Name?
Hi, I"d like to give myself a cool Scrabble name...I have a friend named Scrabulous. I don't like Scrabblicious.

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: NFC-Equipped Sifteo Cubes One Up Hasbro's Scrabble Flash Word Game (But Costs 5X More)
Last year, Hasbro unveiled Scrabble Flash, an electronic version of the popular word game which consists of five SmartLink letter tiles that can communicate with one another using near field communication (NFC) to spell and score words. It's an interesting (and fun) way to build your Scrabble vocabulary for words ranging from two to five letters, but that's about it.

News: $10,000 First Prize for the Upcoming 2010 National SCRABBLE Championship in August
Yes. That's right. The 2010 National SCRABBLE Championship (NSC) is almost here. In fact, it starts in less than 2 weeks! And if you were lucky enough to register for the competitions, you could win a first place prize of $10,000!

How To: Play Scrabble
Andy Strohl is going to show you how to play Scrabble in this series. Besides showing you the basics, he gives you some tips and strategies on winning and using key tiles.

News: How Scrabble Helped a Recovering Deaf Woman Get Her Words Back
I don't want to say too much, because it's best to read it first-hand, but it's a very nice story about a deaf woman who had cochlear implants that helped her hear again. Trouble is, a great deal of her vocabulary was lost while she was deaf, but nightly games of Scrabble with her husband quickly got her vocabulary back in shape!

Scrabble Challenge #5: Put Your 2-Letter Word Skills to the Test
Two-letter words are one of the most important parts of playing Scrabble. If you don't know all of the small ones, then you're missing out on one of the easiest ways to score big. Check out How to Score Big with 2-Letter Words in Scrabble and memorize all that you can. Definitions are optional, but you won't need them for this challenge.

Scrabble Challenge #3: Can You Find the Game Killing Triple-Triple?
There are two types of Scrabble players in the world—those who enjoy it and those who love it. I definitely fall into the latter category. Unfortunately, most of my friends don't. I'm lucky to have a few who simply enjoy it from time to time—some are even standing on the edge of Scrabble geekdom, afraid to take that last step. Maybe someday.

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.

News: SCRABBLE RULES! Official Tournament Guidelines (PDF)
With the 2010 National SCRABBLE Championship coming up next weekend, I figured it would be good to show leisurely players and SCRABBLE neophytes what rules competitive Scrabblers have to follow.

Scrabble Challenge #4: How Fast Are You at Building Words? Find Out…
A recent study in Canada concluded that competitive Scrabble players are twenty percent faster than non-Scrabble players at identifying real words on a Scrabble rack. In light of this news, this week's challenge is actually just a game of Scrabble Sprint from Pogo.com.

How To: Play the word "oxyphenbutazone" in Scrabble Blitz
Watch and learn how to play "oxyphenbutazone" in Scrabble Blitz. Now, some might call you a cheater for this, but who cares what they think? Maybe you are cheating. Just don't try this is any tournament play, and you'll be fine. Unless Scrabulous or whoever kicks you off, which they might do, so beware!

News: Scrabble Dumbs Down Its Game with 3,000 New Words
Remember the firestorm SCRABBLE Trickster caused nine months ago? SCRABBLE enthusiasts across the world were outraged when Mattel created a game that would allow proper nouns to be acceptable words of play. Essentially, it was a dumbed down, youth-friendly version of the classic game they've all come to love. Luckily, it was just a spinoff game—not a replacement. The same can't be said of the new edition of Collins Official SCRABBLE Words.

News: If Cats Could Play Scrabble...
Do you think humans are the only ones who like the challenge of a good word game? Well, think again, because homo sapiens aren't the only ones up for stimulating their brains. Other species on planet Earth like to play Scrabble, too, and they're the ones most likely to actually play the words HOMO and SAPIENS in a game, both totally legit Scrabble words... by themselves, of course.

News: Themed Scrabble
Scrabble Cooking Scrabble Gardening

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?

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 Challenge #2: Can You Find the Highest Scoring Move?
Get ready to rack your brains, because it's time for another Scrabble Challenge! I may have gone a little overboard on last week's challenge (there was over 25 anagrams to solve), so I'm slimming things down this week. This time, there's only one puzzle.

Rules Thrown Out the Window: Ogilvy & Mather's Scrabble Trickster Video Spot
Despite the controversy over Scrabble Trickster across the word world, Mattel's modern take on the classic crossword board game is out in stores— but not in the United States. It's only available in and around the UK, but you can snag your copy just in time for Christmas from Amazon UK. You can also visit the official Scrabble Trickster website. I imagine this is going to be a hot item in the United Kingdom this holiday season, but as for me— it's the one Scrabble game I refuse to add to my c...
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:

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.

News: Ogilvy & Mather's Mattel SCRABBLE Prints
Aside from the popular television commercials Ogilvy & Mather did for Mattel's Scrabble back in 2000 and 2001, they also have a large history in print with Mattel. From 1998 until the present, they've been designing graceful, risible and salacious Scrabble and Junior Scrabble adverts, winning prizes for advertising prints at the Cristal Awards, Golden Hammer, Loerie Awards, Cannes Lions, Epica Awards and FIAP. Without further ado…