News and Updates about SCRABBLE World

Whoa. Someone just got caught this weekend cheating at the 2012 National Scrabble Championship in Florida. He was holding on to some blank tiles, which dropped on the floor mid-game. How did this kid even think he'd get away with hiding blank tiles? Wouldn't it be a little suspicious once his opponent got a third blank tile from the bag?

If you're not into making your own Scrabble coasters out of Scrabble tiles, these are the next best thing (though a little more complicated). And better than having tons of tiles on the same coaster is just being one tile itself, so you can make words out of the coasters!

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.

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 Bingo of the Day: CABRESTA [n/pl.]

Here are some words i grabbed from Porto Editora's 2011 dictionary: Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa

Scrabble Bingo of the Day: * FINNESKO [n/pl.]

Scrabble Bingo of the Day: LUMINARIA [n]

Scrabble Bingo of the Day: * CAGANER [n]

Scrabble Bingo of the Day: DAUBERY [n]

Scrabble Bingo of the Day: NOSEGAY [n]

Scrabble Bingo of the Day: TRAVOISE [n]

What's your highest scoring game of Scrabble?

Scrabble Bingo of the Day: DHOURRA [n]

Alec Baldwin loves word games? Enough to get kicked off an airplane? Apparently.

What happens when a struggling writer cannot finish the screenplay to her second film?

BANSHIEn pl. -S  banshee

CARRIONn pl. -S  dead and putrefying flesh

HEXEREIn pl. -S  witchcraft

COXSWAINv-ED, -ING, -S  to direct (a crew) as coxwain

ZEPHYRSn sing. ZEPHYR  gentle breezes

SHAITANn pl. -S  an evil spirit

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?

BURKITEn pl. -S  a burker

CREMAINSn/pl  the ashes of a cremated body

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.

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).

UTILIDORn pl. -S  an insulated system of pipes for use in arctic regions

PLASTRUMn pl. -S  plastron

Mugshots aren't just for criminals anymore. In the world of competitive Scrabble, no one's safe from the lens of photojournalist Roger Cullman. For the last couple years, Cullman has been hitting up the Scrabble circuit with hopes of immortalizing some of the world's best Scrabble players in headshot pictures of them holding racks with their surnames spelled out in Scrabble tiles.

FOVEOLETn pl. -S  a foveola

Last weekend the 2011 World Scrabble Championship was held at the Hilton Hotel in Warsaw, Poland. There were 106 players competing from 44 countries for the $20,000 first place prize and title of World Scrabble Champion.

ZUGZWANGn pl. -S  a situation in chess that forces a disadvantageous move

Improve your bingo skills with a roundup of this week's Scrabble Bingo of the Days. What exactly is a bingo? It's when a player empties his or her rack in one turn, placing all seven of their letters on the board to create a word that's at least seven letters long.

COLOSSUSn pl. COLOSSUSES or COLOSSIa gigantic statue

BEJABERSinterj  bejesus (used as a mild oath)