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55-667: The North American School Scrabble Championship, formerly the National School Scrabble Championship, is a Scrabble tournament for 3rd grade to 8th grade students, held annually in North America since 2003. In 2018, 3rd graders were allowed to compete for the first time. Prior to 2012, 5th graders were the youngest grade allowed to compete. The School Scrabble Championship uses the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary . The competition

110-529: A 50-point bonus is added, and the score for this play is 38 + 50 = 88 {\displaystyle 38+50=88} points. Player 2 plays RECO(UN)TS E4 through the word UN. Because this word covers two DWS squares, the score for this word is quadrupled, and the score for the play is ( 1 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 ) × 2 × 2 = 40 {\displaystyle (1+1+3+1+1+1+1+1)\times 2\times 2=40} points. Player 1

165-453: A few sets himself but was not successful in selling the game to any major game manufacturers of the day. In 1948, James Brunot, a resident of Newtown, Connecticut , and one of the few owners of the original Criss-Crosswords game, bought the rights to manufacture the game in exchange for granting Butts a royalty on every unit sold. Although he left most of the game (including the distribution of letters) unchanged, Brunot slightly rearranged

220-697: A mechanic. Connections , Mad Libs , Blankety Blank , and Codenames are all semantic games. Games involving creating words that meet specific conditions, such as Wordle , Word Ladder . As part of the modern "Golden Age" of board games, designers have created a variety of newer, non-traditional word games, often with more complex rules. Games like Codenames , Decrypto , and Anomia were all designed after 2010, and have earned widespread acclaim. Mobile games like Letterpress , Words with Friends , and Word Connect have also brought word games to modern audiences. Many popular word games have been adapted to television and radio game shows. As well as

275-553: A number of major college-level dictionaries, principally those published by Merriam-Webster. If a word appears, at least historically, in any one of the dictionaries, it is included in the NWL and the OSPD. If the word has only an offensive meaning, it is included only in the NWL. The key difference between the OSPD and the NWL is that the OSPD is marketed for "home and school" use, without words which their source dictionaries judged offensive, rendering

330-430: A paper and pencil game, players write their own words, often under specific constraints. For example, a crossword requires players to use clues to fill out a grid, with words intersecting at specific letters. Other examples of paper and pencil games include hangman, categories , Boggle , and word searches . Semantic games focus on the semantics of words, utilising their meanings and the shared knowledge of players as

385-545: A part of television and radio throughout broadcast history, including Spelling Bee , the first televised game show, and Wheel of Fortune , the longest-running syndicated game show in the United States. In a letter arrangement game, the goal is to form words out of given letters. These games generally test vocabulary skills as well as lateral thinking skills. Some examples of letter arrangement games include Scrabble , Upwords , Bananagrams , and Countdown . In

440-504: A player has made a play and not yet drawn a tile, any other player may choose to challenge any or all words formed by the play. The challenged word(s) are then searched in the agreed-upon word list or dictionary, and if one or more of them is found to be unacceptable, the play is removed from the board, and the player scores zero for that turn. If all challenged words are acceptable, the challenger loses their turn. In tournament play, players are not entitled to know which word(s) are invalid or

495-521: A player successfully challenges, the opponent must reveal any replacement tiles before returning them to the bag. Tens of thousands play club and tournament Scrabble worldwide. The rules and equipment in tournament Scrabble differ somewhat from those typically found in casual play. For example, all tournament (and most club) games are played with a game clock and a set time control , and are only between two players (or occasionally, two teams of players). A player who goes overtime does not immediately lose

550-447: A player who plays out adds twice this sum, and the opponent's score is unchanged. The score for a play is determined as follows: Scoreless turns can occur when a player passes, exchanges tiles, loses a challenge, or otherwise makes an illegal move. A scoreless turn can also occur if a play consists of only blank tiles, but this is extremely unlikely in actual play. See the example board at right. Suppose Player 1 plays QUITE 8D, with

605-652: A proper noun, have unrelated meanings and are therefore acceptable in major Scrabble lexicons. Acronyms and abbreviations are generally not allowed unless they have separate entries (such as AWOL , RADAR , SCUBA , and WYSIWYG ). Variant spellings, slang or offensive terms, archaic or obsolete terms, and specialized jargon words are acceptable if they meet all other criteria for acceptability, but archaic spellings (e.g., NEEDE or MAKETH) are generally not acceptable words. Foreign words are not allowed in English-language Scrabble unless they have been incorporated into

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660-521: A similar problem occurs in other languages like French, Dutch, Italian, and German. J is also difficult to play due to its low frequency and a scarcity of words having it at the end. C and V may be troublesome in the endgame, since no two-letter words with them exist, except for CH in the Collins Scrabble Words lexicon. In 1931, the American architect Alfred Mosher Butts created the game as

715-476: A single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left to right in rows or downward in columns and are included in a standard dictionary or lexicon . American architect Alfred Mosher Butts invented the game in 1931. Scrabble is produced in the United States and Canada by Hasbro , under the brands of both of its subsidiaries, Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers . Mattel owns

770-424: A source of entertainment , but can additionally serve an educational purpose. Young children can enjoy playing games such as Hangman , while naturally developing important language skills like spelling. Researchers have found that adults who regularly solved crossword puzzles, which require familiarity with a larger vocabulary , had better brain function later in life. Popular word-based game shows have been

825-468: A square game board imprinted with a 15×15 grid of cells (individually known as "squares"), each of which accommodates a single letter tile. In official club and tournament games, play is between two players or, occasionally, between two teams, each of which collaborates on a single rack. The board is marked with "premium" squares, which multiply the number of points awarded: eight dark red "triple-word" squares, 17 pale red "double-word" squares, of which one,

880-405: A successfully challenged play is nearly universal: the offending player removes the tiles played and forfeits their turn. (In some online games, an option known as "void" may be used, wherein unacceptable words are automatically rejected by the program. The player is then required to make another play, with no penalty applied.) The penalty for an unsuccessful challenge (where all words challenged in

935-399: A variation on an earlier word game he invented, called Lexiko . The two games had the same set of letter tiles, whose distributions and point values Butts worked out by performing a frequency analysis of letters from various sources, including The New York Times . The new game, which he called Criss-Crosswords , added the 15×15 gameboard and the crossword-style gameplay. He manufactured

990-411: Is ( 3 + 1 + 1 + 10 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 ) × 3 = 57 {\displaystyle (3+1+1+10+1+1+1+1)\times 3=57} points. The Q is not doubled, as the Q was not played on this turn. Player 1 plays INFaNCY 9D with a blank A, forming five 2-letter words, QI, UN, IF, TA, and EN. Because several additional words were formed, each new word

1045-493: Is NWL2023, effective February 2024, and the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary , published by Merriam-Webster , is currently in its seventh edition of 2022. NWL includes all current OSPD words, plus several hundred offensive words and genericized trademarks such as KLEENEX; as of 2020, it no longer includes words judged to be personally applicable offensive slurs. The NWL and OSPD are compiled using

1100-591: Is a joint venture of Discovery Communications, Inc. and Hasbro. Scrabble was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2004. The "box rules" included in each copy of the North American edition have been edited four times: in 1953, 1976, 1989, and 1999. The major changes in 1953 were as follows. The major changes in 1976 were as follows. The editorial changes made in 1989 did not affect gameplay. The major changes in 1999 were as follows. Before

1155-514: Is ahead 136–97. All words of length 2 to 15 letters that appear in the agreed-upon dictionary or lexicon are acceptable words in Scrabble , as are all their inflected forms and plurals. Words that contain apostrophes, are hyphenated or capitalized (such as proper nouns ) are generally not allowed unless they also appear as acceptable entries; for example, words such as HERES , JACK and TEXAS , while typically containing an apostrophe or considered

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1210-497: Is in tournament Scrabble play, in which teams of two play for 25 minutes with digital timers similar to those used in the board game of chess . The time limit was originally 22 minutes for each side until 2012 when the switch was made to coincide with the traditional times of the Adult Nationals. The team with the most wins is determined the winner. If there are multiple teams with the same number of wins, cumulative point spread

1265-412: Is one of the most versatile tiles in English-language Scrabble because it can be appended to many words to pluralize them (or in the case of most verbs , convert them to the third person singular present tense, as in the word PLUMMETS); Alfred Butts included only four S tiles to avoid making the game "too easy". Q is considered the most troublesome letter, as almost all words with it also contain U ;

1320-537: Is scored separately. The score for this play, without the 50-point bonus, is ( 1 + 1 + 4 + 2 × 0 + 1 + 2 × 3 + 4 ) + ( 10 + 1 ) + ( 1 + 1 ) + ( 1 + 4 ) + ( 1 + 2 × 0 ) + ( 1 + 1 ) = 38 {\displaystyle (1+1+4+2\times 0+1+2\times 3+4)+(10+1)+(1+1)+(1+4)+(1+2\times 0)+(1+1)=38} points. Because all 7 tiles were played on this turn,

1375-484: Is used to break the tie. Matthew Silver of Connecticut became the first competitor to win two consecutive National School Scrabble Championship titles, in 2007 (with Aune Mitchell) and 2008 (with Logan Rosen). Matt Silver accumulated a 14-0 record in those two years. In 2009, for the first time ever, the event was won by a team of 5th graders, Andy Hoang and Erik Salgado of Salem Elementary in North Carolina. They were

1430-514: The Black Lives Matter movement, with the company's head of games saying: "Can you imagine any other game where you can score points and win by using a racial epithet? It’s long overdue." This does not exclude players from playing these words, as it is within the rules of the game to play unacceptable words (at the risk of losing a challenge). There are two popular competition word lists for English-language Scrabble: The first predominates in

1485-681: The Chambers and Collins English dictionaries, but recent editorial decisions have caused greater discrepancies between CSW and NWL. CSW is commonly used to adjudicate major tournaments outside North America. Tournaments are also played using CSW in North America, particularly since Hasbro ceased to control tournament play in 2009. NASPA , the Word Game Players Organization , and Collins Coalition (CoCo) all sanction CSW tournaments, using separate Elo rating systems. The penalty for

1540-435: The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary less fit for official Scrabble play. The OSPD is available in bookstores, while the NWL is available only through NASPA . In all other English-speaking countries, the competition word list is Collins Scrabble Words 2021 edition, known as CSW21 (Versions of this lexicon before 2007 were known as SOWPODS ). Historically, this list has contained all OTCWL words plus words sourced from

1595-485: The "premium" squares of the board and simplified the rules; he also renamed the game Scrabble , a real word that means "scratch frantically". In 1949, Brunot and his family made sets in a converted former schoolhouse in Dodgingtown, Connecticut , a section of Newtown. They made 2,400 sets that year but lost money. According to legend, Scrabble ' s big break came in 1952 when Jack Straus, president of Macy's , played

1650-481: The English language, such as the words QI , KILIM, and PATISSERIE. Vulgar and offensive words are generally excluded from the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary but allowed in club and tournament play. The North American Scrabble Players Association removed slurs from its lexicon in 2020, after conducting a poll of its members. Mattel removed 400 derogatory terms from its official word list in 2021, in response to

1705-445: The Q on a DLS and the E on the center star. Because the center star is a DWS, the score for this play is ( 2 × 10 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 ) × 2 = 48 {\displaystyle (2\times 10+1+1+1+1)\times 2=48} points. Player 2 extends the play to form the word MES(QUITE) 8A with the M on the TWS at 8A. The score for this play

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1760-604: The U.S., Canada, and Thailand, and the second in English Scrabble in the rest of the world. There is also a large community of competitive Collins players in North America, with its own NASPA rating system. Today's NASPA Word List (NWL), published by NASPA Games , descends from the Official Tournament and Club Word List (a non-bowdlerized version of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary ) and its companion Long Words List for longer words. The current version of NWL

1815-457: The UK on January 19, 1955. In 1986, Selchow and Righter was sold to Coleco , which soon afterward went bankrupt . Hasbro then purchased Coleco's assets in 1989, including Scrabble and Parcheesi . Mattel then acquired JW Spear in 1994. Since then, Hasbro has owned the rights to manufacture Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada, and Mattel has held the rights to manufacture the game in other parts of

1870-476: The board, however, the choice is fixed. Other language sets use different letter set distributions with different point values. Tiles are usually made of wood or plastic and are 19 by 19 millimetres (0.75 in × 0.75 in) square and 4 mm (0.16 in) thick, making them slightly smaller than the squares on the board. Only the rosewood tiles of the deluxe edition vary in width up to 2 mm (0.08 in) for different letters. Travelling versions of

1925-458: The book Everything Scrabble by Joe Edley and John D. Williams Jr. (revised edition, Pocket Books , 2001) and the Scrabble FAQ. When available, separate records are listed based upon different official word lists: To date, new editions or revisions of these lists have not been considered substantial enough to warrant separate record-keeping. Word game Word games are generally used as

1980-399: The center square (H8), is marked with a star or other symbol, 12 dark blue "triple-letter" squares, and 24 pale blue "double-letter" squares. In 2008, Hasbro changed the colors of the premium squares to orange for TW, red for DW, blue for DL, and green for TL, but the original premium square color scheme is still preferred for Scrabble boards used in tournaments. In an English-language set,

2035-461: The definitions of any challenged words. Penalties for unsuccessfully challenging an acceptable play vary in club and tournament play and are described in greater detail below. The game ends when either: At the end of the game, each player's score is reduced by the sum of the values of their unplayed tiles; if a player plays out, the sum of all other players' unplayed tiles is added to that player's score. This rule differs slightly in most tournaments;

2090-401: The first Canadian champions: Alex Li and Jackson Smylie from Ontario. In 2018 and 2019 Noah Slatkoff, also from Ontario, was champion (with Jeffrey Pogue from Connecticut). In 2014, champion Thomas Draper became the first three-time finalist. The 2014 NASC was the first tournament to return to Providence since 2009. 2015 was the second year in a row where a bi-coastal team won the tournament and

2145-508: The first team to win two years consecutively, under the team name Rackmasters. In 2017, High School and Challenge divisions were added to the event. The 2017 High School division winner was Kevin Bowerman (NC), who was champion (with Raymond Gao) in 2013; Challenge division winners were Audrey Benford (MD) and Dina Lacugna (CT). Scrabble Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing

2200-447: The fourth consecutive time where a team from North Carolina played in the final game. In 2018 the first U.S.-Canadian team won. Selected games from these tournaments were aired live with commentary on the internet. In 2017, champions Zach Ansell and Jem Burch both won for the second time, but with different teammates. Zach won with Noah Kalus in 2015, and Jem won with Cooper Komatsu in 2016. In 2019, Jeffrey Pogue and Noah Slatkoff became

2255-744: The game (as in chess ), but is instead assessed a 10-point penalty per minute. Also, the original wooden tiles are not allowed in tournaments as it is possible for players to "feel" the tiles in the bag (especially blank tiles); thus, molded plastic tiles are often used. Players are allowed tracking sheets containing the tile distribution, from which tiles can be crossed off as they are played. Regularly held major tournaments include: Other important tournaments include: Scrabble clubs typically meet weekly and may typically hold one or more open, sanctioned tournaments per year. The following records were achieved during international competitive club or tournament play, according to authoritative sources, including

North American School Scrabble Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

2310-488: The game contains 100 tiles, 98 of which are marked with a letter and a point value ranging from 1 to 10. The number of points for each lettered tile is based on the letter's frequency in standard English. Commonly used letters such as vowels are worth one point, while less common letters score higher, with Q and Z each worth 10 points. The game also has two blank tiles that are unmarked and carry no point value. The blank tiles can be used as substitutes for any letter; once laid on

2365-421: The game often have smaller tiles (e.g. 13 mm × 13 mm (0.51 in × 0.51 in)); sometimes they are magnetic to keep them in place. The capital letter is printed in black at the centre of the tile face and the letter's point value is printed in a smaller font at the bottom right corner. Most modern replacement tile sets come at 18 mm × 20 mm (0.7 in × 0.8 in). S

2420-424: The game on vacation. Upon returning from vacation, he was surprised to find that his store did not carry the game. He placed a large order, and within a year, "everyone had to have one". In 1952, unable to meet demand himself, Brunot licensed the manufacturing rights to Long Island-based Selchow and Righter , one of the manufacturers that, like Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley Company , had previously rejected

2475-696: The game themselves. In 2012, Andy Hoang and Erik Salgado of North Carolina became the first team to win two NSSC titles, their first as 5th graders in 2009, and their second as 8th graders in 2012. In 2019, Jeffrey Pogue and Noah Slatkoff became the first team to win consecutive championships. The 2013 NSSC was held in Washington D.C. 2013 marked the first time since 2009 that a previous champion did not compete. In 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2019 Andy Hoang, Erik Salgado, Bradley Robbins, Evan McCarthy, Jeffrey Pogue, and Noah Slatkoff were champions that returned. Andy Hoang and Erik Salgado and Jeffrey Pogue and Noah Slatkoff were

2530-469: The game, a word list or dictionary is selected in order to adjudicate any challenges during the game. In tournament play, the word list is specified in advance, typically the NASPA Word List , the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary , or Collins Scrabble Words . All 100 tiles are placed into an opaque bag. To decide which player plays first, each player draws one tile from the bag. The player who picks

2585-473: The game. "It's a nice little game. It will sell well in bookstores," Selchow and Righter president Harriet T. Righter remembered saying about Scrabble when she first saw it. In its second year as a Selchow and Righter product, 1954, nearly four million sets were sold. Selchow and Righter then bought the trademark to the game in 1972. Meanwhile, JW Spear acquired the rights to sell the game in Australia and

2640-513: The last team to finish the tournament with an undefeated record (7-0) until 2018, when the team of Jeffrey Pogue (CT) and Noah Slatoff (ON) finished with a perfect 9-0 record. The champions finished 6-1 in 2010, 7-1 in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016, and 8-1 in 2017 and 2019. The winners have often been invited to be on Good Morning America and Jimmy Kimmel Live! . The event has also received recognition from president Barack Obama and NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal , who are advocates for

2695-400: The letter closest to "A" goes first, with blanks taking precedence over the letter A. Each player then draws seven tiles and places them on their rack, hidden from other players. On every turn, the player at turn can perform one of the following options: The first play of the game must consist of at least two tiles and cover the center square (H8). Any play thereafter must use at least one of

2750-761: The only ones to repeat during the streak, with Jeffrey Pogue and Noah Slatkoff being the first to win back-to-back championships. With Jeffrey Pogue and Noah Slatkoff's win in 2019, Connecticut became the first state to hold 4 National titles: Connecticut players Matthew Silver (2007 and 2008), Aune Mitchell (2007), Logan Rosen (2008), and Jeffrey Pogue (2018 and 2019). California and North Carolina teams have won 3 National titles: California players Zach Ansell (2015 and 2017), Jem Burch (2016 and 2017), and Cooper Komatsu (2016); and North Carolina Players Andy Hoang (2009 and 2012), Erik Salgado (2009 and 2012), Kevin Bowerman (2013), and Raymond Gao (2013). Canadian teams were permitted to compete in this event starting in 2010, and 2011 saw

2805-430: The play are deemed valid) varies considerably, including: Under tournament rules, a player may request to "hold" the opponent's play to consider whether to challenge it, provided that the opponent has not yet drawn replacement tiles. The holding player's clock still runs, and the opponent cannot draw replacement tiles for 15 seconds or until the hold is released but may draw tiles afterward (which must be kept separate). If

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2860-401: The player's tiles to form a "main word" (containing all of the player's played tiles in a straight line) reading left-to-right or top-to-bottom. Diagonal plays are not allowed. At least one tile must be adjacent (horizontally or vertically) to a tile already on the board. If the play includes a blank tile, the player must designate the letter the blank represents; that letter remains unchanged for

2915-432: The rest of the game unless the play is challenged off. The player announces the score for that play, and then draws tiles from the bag equal to the number of tiles played, so that there are seven tiles on their rack. If there are not enough tiles, the player draws any remaining tiles instead. If the game is played using a clock , the player starts the opponent's clock after announcing the score and before drawing tiles. If

2970-418: The rights to manufacture Scrabble outside the U.S. and Canada. As of 2008, the game is sold in 121 countries and is available in more than 30 languages; approximately 150 million sets have been sold worldwide, and roughly one-third of American homes and half of British homes have a Scrabble set. There are approximately 4,000 Scrabble clubs around the world. The game is played by two to four players on

3025-432: The world. In 1984, Scrabble was turned into a daytime game show on NBC . The Scrabble game show ran from July 1984 to March 1990, with a second run from January to June 1993. The show was hosted by Chuck Woolery . Its tagline in promotional broadcasts was, "Every man dies; not every man truly Scrabbles." In 2011, a new TV variation of Scrabble , called Scrabble Showdown , aired on The Hub cable channel, which

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