60
votes
Accepted
Is adding a parallel word that only intersects the end letter of an existing word allowed in Scrabble?
The play you describe is both legal and generally easier to do than the multi-cross play you cite as a rules example.
The general rules relevant here are that, first, all the letters for a single ...
- 1,687
45
votes
Has it ever been an official rule that I have to demonstrate knowledge of what a word means in order to play it in Scrabble?
I'll answer the same as a few other answers.
No
But with a different justification.
Nigel Richards won the 2015 French-language Scrabble World Championship without knowing what the words mean. From ...
- 559
41
votes
Accepted
In Scrabble, how to determine the main word if the player has just played one single tile but formed two different words?
Main words are not a concept of the game of Scrabble itself, only of the written Scrabble notation commonly used to record tournament games (and likely also found in some computerised versions of the ...
- 8,336
40
votes
Accepted
Does Scrabble allow playing words which contain diacritics in their original spelling?
Scrabble does indeed allow words of a foreign origin IF they are used consistently enough in the English language to appear in an English dictionary.
Generally speaking this would result in the ...
- 8,336
35
votes
Was it ever the case that Scrabble tiles had to be placed contiguously?
It seems it has never been a rule.
I've found a (non-HTTPS) site here that shows previous rules from different version of the game. The oldest rules they have are from 1948, the year the game became ...
- 10.5k
34
votes
Is this a legal play in Scrabble?
This is a perfectly legal move covered by the third point in the rules excerpt below.
https://scrabble.hasbro.com/en-us/rules
New words may be formed by:
Adding one or more letters to a word or ...
- 2,289
28
votes
Is this a legal play in Scrabble?
That is legal. The rules only specify that you place your tiles along the same vertical or horizontal line, and must be adjacent to tiles already on the board in at least one place.
Your friend formed ...
- 419
22
votes
Accepted
Scrabble - Parallel Words joined at one letter
The official rules state:
New words may be formed by:
Adding one or more letters to a word or letters already on the board.
Placing a word at right angles to a word already on the board. The new ...
- 11.2k
21
votes
Impossible Scrabble Words
According to this reddit thread, the complete list of words in the allowed dictionary (which doesn't list words with more than 15 letters), the Collins Scrabble Words list from 2015, that you can't ...
- 10.8k
19
votes
In Scrabble if you use all your letters to make up a word, do you get an extra points?
Yes, assuming you have a full hand of seven tiles. From the rules:
BINGO! If you play seven tiles on a turn, it's a Bingo. You score a premium of 50 points after totaling your score for the turn.
...
- 26.9k
19
votes
Impossible Scrabble Words
The Scrabble board is 15 squares square. That means that no word longer than 15 letters can possibly be played. So 'absentmindedness', 'counterbalancing', and 'antidisestablishmentarianism' will ...
- 12.6k
17
votes
Was it ever the case that Scrabble tiles had to be placed contiguously?
This was never an actual rule, but it's easy to understand how someone could misread the rules to think it was. The original printed rules for scrabble include this rule (emphasis mine):
4. All ...
- 14.1k
17
votes
In Scrabble, does a blank tile on the double/triple word square count?
Yes. It doesn't matter which tile is on the double/triple word space, if you make a word while placing a blank tile on one of these squares, your word score is still doubled/tripled. From the official ...
- 14.1k
15
votes
Has it ever been an official rule that I have to demonstrate knowledge of what a word means in order to play it in Scrabble?
I hoped this question could be trivially answered with reference to the Official Scrabble Rules but it turns out to be not quite as well defined as you might hope.
The only references to challenges ...
- 10.2k
14
votes
Accepted
In Scrabble, can a normal play be scoreless?
There are two blank tiles which score zero. So if you played a two letter word using a second blank tile connecting to a blank tile, then your turn would score zero even though you played a word.
...
- 424
14
votes
Is this a legal Scrabble play?
Nope.
From the official rules (emphasis mine):
All letters played on a turn must be placed in one row across or down the board, to form at least one complete word. If, at the same time, they touch ...
- 4,582
13
votes
Do you score for all smaller words within the long one in the same move in scrabble?
You only score each tile in a word once, where a word is the full sequence of letters added or modified in each column or row by your tile placement.
If you check the scoring example in the official ...
- 8,336
12
votes
Does Scrabble allow playing words which contain diacritics in their original spelling?
The official scrabble rules state:
Before the game begins, all players should agree upon the dictionary that they will use, in case of a challenge. All words labeled as a part of speech (including ...
- 543
12
votes
Strategy for two blank Scrabble tiles
People often consider a blank to be "worth" 25 points to a good player. That is to say, even though it has no points value in itself, it can improve your scoring possibilities by about 25 points ...
- 1,429
12
votes
Can I place a row of letters that makes multiple new words in combination with tiles already on the board?
From the official rules on the Hasbro website:
3: [...] All letters played on a turn must be placed in one row across or down the board, to form at least one complete word. If, at the same time, they ...
- 11.2k
11
votes
What are the odds in Scrabble of not being able to make a legal move on opening turn
(NOTE : Final revision of my original answer)
The odds of the first tileset not having a single valid word is exactly 91,595,416 / 16,007,560,800 or .5722%, with it occuring once every 174.76378 games....
- 4,550
10
votes
Which words count for a double word score?
You can do what you want here (score the modified word and the entirely new word).
All that matters is whether you play a tile on a premium square. If you do, you'll get the bonus, for that tile or ...
- 26.9k
10
votes
Accepted
Minimum score for 7 letters and what beats it
The minimum score for a seven letter word if you can place the word anywhere is 55.
e.g.
RETiNAs C2 across. (lower case indicate blanks)
The score is 5 for RETNA, 0 for the blanks, and 50 bonus ...
- 1,429
10
votes
Latest Collins Scrabble Words list in text file
The Words List seems to be protected by copyright. I highly doubt downloading the entire list - especially in an easily accessible format - is strictly speaking legal.
I found this on the Collins ...
- 3,247
10
votes
Accepted
Can I use plurals in scrabble?
Yes.
Any word that is found in a standard English dictionary can be used in the game of Scrabble. There are also Official Scrabble Dictionaries that can be purchased for more word options. (Rules ...
- 74k
10
votes
In Scrabble, what happens if a player has to leave the game early?
While there are no explicit rules in Scrabble to handle this, it's pretty straight forward to do this in Scrabble with minimal disruption. I've done this on several occasions.
Leave any tiles on the ...
- 17.9k
10
votes
Accepted
Adam Logan vs. Ben Schoenbrun (2023 Canadian Scrabble Classic): where can JUN be placed?
Looks like it's in the top right, hooking onto PI to make PIN.
His opponent would responding with SIJO on the top row over the triple word score.
- 299
9
votes
Accepted
If I extend a word, do I get points for all the words, or just the straight line word?
You are correct (you get points just for SADE and EN, not for the other words still on the board that were on the board before your turn). Here's the rule from the official rules (emphasis added):
...
- 10.8k
9
votes
Scoring first word with all 7 letters
You get both.
In fact, there are three bonuses that you can get on your first turn, evaluated in this order:
Double letter score (if you play your word such that it hits one of the double letter ...
- 17.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible