Scrabble

Scrabble

A game of English-language Scrabble in progress
Manufacturers	Hasbro (within U.S. and Canada) Mattel (outside U.S. and Canada)
Designers	Alfred Mosher Butts
Publishers	James Brunot
Publication	1948; 76 years ago (1948)
Genres	Word game Board game
Players	2–4
Setup time	2–4 minutes
Playing time	Tournament game: 50–60 minutes
Chance	Medium (letters drawn)
Skills	Vocabulary, spelling, anagramming, strategy, counting, bluffing, probability
Website	scrabble.hasbro.com

Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing 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 1938. 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 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 and half of British homes have a Scrabble set.^[1][2][3][4] There are approximately 4,000 Scrabble clubs around the world.^[4]

Game details[edit]

The game is played by two to four players on 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.^[5]

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, 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.^[6]

The name of the game spelled out in game tiles from the English-language version. Each tile is marked with its point value, with a blank tile — the game's equivalent of a wild card — played as the word's first letter. The blank tile is worth zero points.

In an English-language set, 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 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 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 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; 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.^[7] 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.

History[edit]

In 1938, the American architect Alfred Mosher Butts created the game as 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 a few sets himself but was not successful in selling the game to any major game manufacturers of the day.^[9]: 98

In 1948, James Brunot,^[10] 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 the "premium" squares of the board and simplified the rules; he also renamed the game Scrabble, a real word which means "to scratch frantically".^[9]: 100 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.^[11] According to legend, Scrabble's big break came in 1952 when Jack Straus, president of Macy's, played 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".^[9]: 101

In 1952, unable to meet demand himself, Brunot licensed the manufacturing rights to Long Island-based Selchow and Righter, one of the manufacturers who, like Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley Company, had previously rejected 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.^[12] In its second year as a Selchow and Righter product, 1954, nearly four million sets were sold.^{[13][9]: 104} Selchow and Righter then bought the trademark to the game in 1972.^[14]

Meanwhile, JW Spear acquired the rights to sell the game in Australia and the UK on January 19, 1955.^[9] 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.^[14] Mattel then acquired JW Spear in 1994.^[9] 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 the world.^[14]

In 1984, Scrabble was turned into a daytime game show on NBC. The Scrabble game show ran from July 1984 to March 1990,^[15] 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."^[16] In 2011, a new TV variation of Scrabble, called Scrabble Showdown, aired on The Hub cable channel, which is a joint venture of Discovery Communications, Inc. and Hasbro.

Scrabble was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2004.^[17]

Evolution of the rules[edit]

The "box rules" included in each copy of the North American edition have been edited four times: in 1953, 1976, 1989, and 1999.^[18]

The major changes in 1953 were as follows.

• It was made clear that:
  • words could be played through single letters already on the board,
  • a player could play a word parallel and immediately adjacent to an existing word provided all crossing words formed were valid,
  • the effect of two premium squares was to be compounded multiplicatively.
• The previously unspecified penalty for having one's play successfully challenged was stated: withdrawal of tiles and loss of turn.

The major changes in 1976 were as follows.

• It was made clear that the blank tile beats an A when drawing to see who goes first.
• A player could pass their turn, doing nothing.
• A loss-of-turn penalty was added for challenging an acceptable play.
• If final scores are tied, the player whose score was highest before adjusting for unplayed tiles is the winner;^[19] in tournament play, a tie is counted as half a win for both players.^[6]

The editorial changes made in 1989 did not affect gameplay.^[18]

The major changes in 1999 were as follows.

• It was made clear that:
  • a tile can be shifted or replaced until the play has been scored,
  • a challenge applies to all the words made in the given play.
• Playing all seven tiles is officially called a "bingo" in North America and a "bonus" elsewhere.
• A change in the wording of the rules could have been interpreted as meaning that a player may form more than one word on one row on a single turn.

Rules[edit]

Before 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 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.

Gameplay[edit]

On every turn, the player at turn can perform one of the following options:

• Pass, forfeiting the turn and scoring zero.
• Exchange one or more tiles for an equal number from the bag, scoring zero. This can only be done if 7 or more tiles remain in the bag.
• Play at least one tile on the board, adding the value of all words formed to the player's cumulative score.

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 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. After making a play, the player announces the score for that play (see Scoring for more details), and then, if the game is being played with a clock, starts their opponent's clock. If the opponent does not challenge the play, the player then draws tiles equal to the number of tiles played, or all tiles if there are not enough tiles in the bag to do so.

If 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 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, a challenge may be to the entire play or any one or more words formed in the play, and players are not entitled to know which word(s) are invalid or 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.

End of game[edit]

The game ends when either:

• One player has played every tile on their rack ("playing out") and no tiles remain in the bag (regardless of the tiles on the opponent's rack).
• At least six successive scoreless turns have occurred and either player decides to end the game. This typically occurs at the end of the game when none of the players can form a valid word with their tiles. (For several years, a game could not end with a cumulative score of 0–0, but that is no longer the case, and such games have since occurred a number of times in tournament play, the winner being the player with the lower total point value on their rack and thus a score less negative than the opponent's.^[20])
• In tournament play, if either player uses more than 10 minutes of overtime.

When the game ends, 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' unused tiles is added to that player's score. In tournament play, a player who goes out adds twice that sum, and the opponent's score is unchanged. The player with the highest final score wins the game.

Scoring[edit]

The score for a play is determined as follows:

• The value of each tile is indicated with a point values (between 1 and 10, with blanks worth zero points), and the score of every new word formed is equal to the sum of the point values of the letters in that word. If a play covers any premium squares (such as DLS or TWS squares), the point value of the corresponding letter or word is multiplied by 2 or 3 respectively. The center star is also a DWS square.
• Premium squares only apply when newly placed tiles cover them. Any subsequent plays do not count these premium squares. A play that covers a DWS or TWS multiplies the value of the entire word(s) by 2 or 3, including tiles already on the board.
• If a newly placed word covers both letter and word premium squares, the letter premium(s) is/are calculated first, followed by the word premium(s).
• If a player makes a play where the main word covers two DWS squares, the value of that word is doubled, then redoubled (i.e. 4× the word value). Similarly, if the main word covers two TWS squares, the value of that word is tripled, then re-tripled (9× the word value). Such plays are often referred to as "double-doubles" and "triple-triples" respectively.
• If a player plays all seven of their tiles on their turn (known as a "bingo" in North America and as a "bonus" elsewhere), a 50-point bonus is added to the score of the play.

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.

Scoring example[edit]

See the example board at right.

Suppose Player 1 plays QUITE 8D, with 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 ${displaystyle (2 imes 10+1+1+1+1) imes 2=48}$ points.

Player 2 extends the play to form the word MES(QUITE) 8A with the A on the TWS at 8A. The score for this play is ${displaystyle (3+1+1+10+1+1+1+1) imes 3=57}$ 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 is scored separately. The score for this play, without the 50-point bonus, is

${displaystyle (1+1+4+2 imes 0+1+2 imes 3+4)+(10+1)+(1+1)+(1+4)+(1+2 imes 0)+(1+1)=38}$ points. Because all 7 tiles were played on this turn, a 50-point bonus is added, and the score for this play is ${displaystyle 38+50=88}$ 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 ${displaystyle (1+1+3+1+1+1+1+1) imes 2 imes 2=40}$ points. Player 1 is ahead 136-97.

Acceptable words[edit]

All words that appear in the agreed-upon dictionary or lexicon are acceptable words in Scrabble, as are all their inflected forms, as well as plurals. Words that contain apostrophes or are hyphenated or capitalized (such as proper nouns) are generally not allowed unless they also appear as acceptable entries; for example, words such as JACK and TEXAS, while typically considered proper nouns, have unrelated meanings and are therefore acceptable in major Scrabble lexicons. Acronyms and abbreviations, other than those that have acceptable entries (such as AWOL, RADAR, SCUBA, and WYSIWYG^[21]) are not allowed. 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 the English language, such as the words QI,^[22] 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.^[23] Mattel removed 400 derogatory terms from its official word list in 2021, in response to 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."^[24] 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:

• NASPA Word List (NWL, also known as OTCWL, OWL, or TWL)
• Collins Scrabble Words (CSW, also called "Collins" or "SOWPODS")

The first predominates in the U.S., Canada, Israel 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.

NWL and OSPD[edit]

Today's NASPA Word List, 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 is NWL2020, effective January 2021, and the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, published by Merriam-Webster, is currently in its sixth edition of 2018. 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 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 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.

Collins Scrabble Words[edit]

In all other English-speaking countries, the competition word list is Collins Scrabble Words 2019 edition, known as CSW19. (Versions of this lexicon before 2007 were known as SOWPODS.) The lexicon includes all allowed words 2 to 15 letters long. Historically, this list has contained all OTCWL words plus words sourced from Chambers and Collins English dictionaries, but recent editorial decisions have caused greater discrepancies between CSW and NWL. This book is used to adjudicate at the World Scrabble Championship and all other major international competitions 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.^[25]

Challenges[edit]

The penalty for a successfully challenged play is nearly universal: the offending player removes the tiles played and forfeits their turn. (In some online games, a