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OWL3 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 at no cost.

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 "Third Official Tournament and Club Word List" or "OWL3" (available only to club/tourney members at the NASPA web site). This book is the only reference for words played which are of lengths between 2 and 15.

The Dictionary Committee of NASPA, in conjunction with Merriam-Webster, updated both the Official Scrabble® Players Dictionary (OSPD) and the Official Word List (OWL). The Fifth Edition of the OSPD is now being sold to the public, and the updated OWL, currently OWL3, is available to members of NASPA. Competitive play in clubs and tournaments switched to using these lists in April, 2015.

The OSPD5 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 were present in previous editions. The OWL continues to include those nasty words. The OWL3 contains some words which are not nasty and are not included in the new OSPD5, especially trademark names, such as KLEENEX.

Unfortunately, these two word sources are not otherwise consistent with one another, as had been the case for the earlier editions of these books. How or whether this is will be resolved has not been announced, as of June, 2015. There are many words acceptable for official competitive play in North America which are missing from the OSPD5.

A very good one-page two-sided "Cheat Sheet" for getting started with Scrabble® word knowledge is the first option at: http://www.cross-tables.com/cs.php. Print this page on a color printer if you want to see the new OWL3 words in red ink. The second option uses black ink for the document.

Also see Archived old/dormant Scrabble® FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) by Steven Alexander - a comprehensive source.

Here are the OWL3 word lists found at this site:

• All New OWL3 Words of Length 2 - 8
  
  
• All OWL3 Two-Letter Words, with Definitions
• All OWL3 Twos and Their One-Letter Extensions
  
  
• All OWL3 Three-Letter Words on one sheet
• All OWL3 Three-Letter Words - First Half
• All OWL3 Three-Letter Words - Second Half
• All OWL3 Three-Letter Words with Hooks
  
  
• Definitions of New OWL3 Words of Length 2-4
• Definitions of New OWL3 Fives
• The Most Likely New OWL3 Sevens, with Anagrams
• Definitions of the Most Likely New OWL3 Sevens
• Most Likely New OWL3 Eights, with Anagrams
• Definitions of the Most Likely New OWL3 Eights
  
  
• All New OWL3 Words with OWL2 Anagrams of Length 2 - 8
• All New OWL3 Hooks on OWL2 Words of Length 2 - 8
  
  
• OWL3 Words with a J of Length 3 - 5
• OWL3 Words with a Q of Length 3 - 5
• OWL3 Words with a X of Length 3 - 5
• OWL3 Words with a Z of Length 3 - 5
  
  
• OWL3 Words with a Q not Immediately Followed by a U
• OWL3 Words Heavy in Vowels
• Anamonics Which Are OWL3 Words
  
  
• One-off Sevens - one blank among 7 tiles
• One-off Eights - one blank among 8 tiles
  
  
• OWL3 Words Related to Alphabets and Letters

Many of the above links get you to an HTML file, and the remaining ones are for MS/Word .doc files.

More lists will be included here, as time permits. Let me know if there are lists you would like to see.