The Internet has changed the face of the Scrabble game – there are many online games such as Hasbro's official Scrabble game and similar word games like Wordscraper, Lexulous and Friends Friends. Each game offers more options for the game dictionary – which is to be used when playing with friends against their competitors?
The "Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary" was originally launched in 1978 by the American National Scrabble Association for use in sanctioned tournaments. If a word needs to be inserted into the dictionary, it must be present in one of the five standard printing dictionaries – the Merriam-Webster Collegiate, Funk & Wagnalls dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary of Webster New World Second College, The Random House College Dictionary. The tournament in the United States, Canada and Thailand now uses the Tournament Word List (TWL), which contains the official Scrabble Players Dictionary version. The dictionary from the original OSPD version edited some words that are less suitable for playing the tournaments. Removed words are the ones that can attack players. The current version of the competition is TWL2, sometimes OWL (Official Glossary).
In the UK, Australia and New Zealand, the dictionary used is "Official Scrabble Words" (OSW). This collection uses all the words and combinations that can be played in the Scrabble tournament in each country and British English.
The rest of the world uses the SOWPODS dictionary. The SOWPODS dictionary merges the OSPD dictionary of the British OSW and the National Scrabble Association. There is no actual dictionary definition, but it allows one of OSW or OSPD dictionaries to be used as a reference during Scrabble.
So, which list should be used? The SOWPODS Glossary contains the most words that provide as many opportunities as possible in a friendly game. If you are preparing for racing or competitive games, use the official glossary of your country.
Source by Dave Shimoda