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Word Lists for Playing Competitive Scrabble®

Although you can see some word lists here, you can make your own lists of Scrabble® words using Mike's WHAT program, which is available for sale. There is also a free demo form of the same program, named someWHAT, which includes words up to six letters in length.

Included on this web site are some lists of words of particular aid to folks learning useful words for competitive play in North America and other places using the same lexicon, such as Israel. All these words are found in the "Official Tournament and Club Word List" or "OWL" (available only to NSA members at the NSA web site), published by Merriam-Webster. This book is the only reference for words played which are less than 10 letters in length. This list is based on the Second Edition of the Official Scrabble® Players Dictionary (no longer available in bookstores), supplemented by new words from the Third Edition (perhaps still in some book stores) as of 1-Feb-96, and further adjusted on 2-Mar-98. One acceptable word omitted from the OWL by mistake is ANTEFIXAE; it should be written into these books.

The Dictionary Committee of the NSA worked very hard to update both the Official Scrabble® Players Dictionary and the Official Word List (OWL). The Fourth Edition of the OSPD is now being sold to the public, and the updated OWL is available to members of the NSA. Competitive play in clubs and tournaments switched to using these lists on March 1, 2006.

The Fourth Edition is sold in book stores, but since it is intended for school and recreational use it is missing the swear words and ethnic slurs which where present in previous editions. The OWL continues to include those nasty words and some such words added later. Also, the new OWL2 contains some words which are not nasty yet are not included in the new OSPD4, espcially trademark names.

Before June 16, 2003, words of length greater than 9 letters may also have come from the longer word source dictionary, which was the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition. Since then, Merriam-Webster has produced the Eleventh Edition.

The Official Long Words List has been compiled and created by the Dictionary Committee of the NSA. As of June 16, 2003, this list became the ONLY acceptable official long word list for use at sanctioned NSA Clubs and Tournaments.

Also see Steven Alexander's Scrabble® FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for more details about word sources.

Here are the word lists found at this site:

• All the OWL2 Two-Letter Words, with Meanings
• All the OSPD4 Two-Letter Words, with Meanings
• OWL2 Word Lists
  
  
• All TWL98/OSPD3 Two-Letter Words and Their One-Letter Extensions
• All TWL98/OSPD3 Three-Letter Words and Their One-Letter Extensions
• TWL98/OSPD3 Words with Q not immediately followed by U
• TWL98/OSPD3 Words With High-Scoring Letters (J,Q,X,Z)
• TWL98/OSPD3 Words Heavy in Vowels
  
  
• Brand Names with OWL2 Anagrams

Here are some word lists found at other sites:

• John Chew's Word Lists, including plausible phonies and phonies with anagrams. Mike Wolfberg was a major contributor to the latter list.
  
  
• Seattle Club Lists and Study Tools