What is Scrabblist.com?

Scrabblist.com is a website devoted to helping you find and learn the best Scrabble words. We search through our dictionaries to create lists of words that are useful to players of Scrabble and other word games.

What dictionaries do you use?

We use two English dictionaries, SOWPODS and TWL. Both of these are used for Scrabble competitions, with TWL being popular in North America and SOWPODS being used more internationally.

Where do the definitions come from?

The meanings are taken from WordNet, a free lexical resource that is available from ...

What is a "Super Search"?

Scrabblist.com provides two types of search, a regular search and a "super" search. The regular search will search for exactly the word you type in, as well as words that can be formed from that word using one or two letters. A super search will search for any words that can be made using the letters you type in.

Isn't it cheating to use a super search?

That depends. If your oponent is aware you are using super search and he or she is also using it then it's not unfair. However if your oponent has no idea about Scrabblist.com it's probably not fair - you'd better tell them straight away! You should agree with your oponent what type of search is admissable before you start the game.

Doesn't this take all the fun out of the game?

Like computer assisted chess, computer assisted Scrabble is still challenging, it just changes the challenge: instead of having to memorise large numbers of words you have to find the best word to maximize your score and increase your advantage on the board. It can also be a great way to level the playing field when only some people speak English as a first language.

What are the "best scoring" lists?

Best scoring lists list the words that would score the most points in a Scrabble game before any bonus multipliers are included. Care is taken to ensure that the score reflects a real Scrabble score, for example, the word BUZZ can only score 14 since a blank tile must be used for one of the letter Zs (there is only one Z in English Scrabble). According to this method of scoring, the best possible word in Scrabble is METHOXYBENZENES, although this will not give you the best possible Scrabble score since the high scoring letters are not optimally placed.

What are "dumpers"?

It quite often occurs in Scrabble that you'll end up with a handful of vowels - not a very desirable situation. You need a way to get rid of them, but you don't necessarily need to waste a turn changing your letters. Dumpers are words that allow you to "dump" your vowels in one go - they are words that contain a high proportion of vowels. The longest word consisting only of vowels is EUOUAE.