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 1931. 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 homes and half of
British homes have a Scrabble set.[1][2][3][4] There are approximately 4,000 Scrabble clubs
around the world.[4]

Equipment
[edit]
Further information: Scrabble letter distributions
Scrabble is played on a 15x15 board, containing 225 squares. Certain squares are
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.[5]

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.
An English-language set contains 100 tiles, 98 of which are marked with a letter and a
point value between 1 and 10. Each tile's point value is based on its frequency in
English, with vowels and common letters such as L, N, R, S, and T worth 1 point, and
rare letters such as Q and Z worth 10 points. The remaining two tiles are blank and
carry no value. 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, slightly smaller than the squares on
the board. Each player uses a rack that conceals their tiles from other players.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
3× 2× 3× 2× 3×
1 WS LS WS LS WS 1
2× 3× 3× 2×
2 WS LS LS WS 2
2× 2× 2× 2×
3 WS LS LS WS 3
2× 2× 2× 2× 2×
4 LS WS LS WS LS 4
2× 2×
5 WS WS 5
3× 3× 3× 3×
6 LS LS LS LS 6
2× 2× 2× 2×
7 LS LS LS LS 7
3× 2× 2× 3×
8 WS LS LS WS 8
2× 2× 2× 2×
9 LS LS LS LS 9
3× 3× 3× 3×
10 LS LS LS LS 10
2× 2×
11 WS WS 11
2× 2× 2× 2× 2×
12 LS WS LS WS LS 12
2× 2× 2× 2×
13 WS LS LS WS 13
2× 3× 3× 2×
14 WS LS LS WS 14
3× 2× 3× 2× 3×
15 WS LS WS LS WS 15

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O

Triple word score Triple letter score

Double word score Double letter score
The official Scrabble board design

History
[edit]
 Alfred Butts manually tabulated the frequency of letters in
words of various length, using examples in a dictionary, the Saturday Evening Post, the New
York Herald Tribune, and The New York Times.[6] This was used to determine the number and
scores of tiles in the game.
In 1931 in Poughkeepsie, New York, 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.[7]: 98

In 1948, James Brunot,[8] 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 that means "scratch frantically".[7]: 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.[9]

In 1952, unable to meet demand himself, Brunot licensed the manufacturing rights to
Long Island-based Selchow and Righter, one of the manufacturers that, 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.[10] In its second year
as a Selchow and Righter product, 1954, nearly four million sets were sold.[11][7]:
104
Selchow and Righter then bought the trademark to the game in 1972.[12]
Meanwhile, JW Spear acquired the rights to sell the game in Australia and the UK on
January 19, 1955.[7] 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.[12] Mattel then acquired JW Spear in 1994.[7] 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. [12]

Scrabble logo used by Mattel from 2013 to 2020

Scrabble logo used by Hasbro in the United

States and Canada until 2008
In 1984, Scrabble was turned into a daytime game show on NBC. The Scrabble game
show ran from July 1984 to March 1990,[13] 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."[14] 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.[15]

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.[16]

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;[17] in tournament play, a tie is counted as half a win for
both players.[5]
The editorial changes made in 1989 did not affect gameplay.[16]

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. One player is
selected to go first; a commonly used method is for each player to draw one tile from
the bag, and whoever draws a letter alphabetically closest to A goes first (blanks
supersede A). Each player then draws seven tiles and places them on their rack, hidden
from other players.

A game of Scrabble in French

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. If the play includes a blank tile,
the player must designate the letter the blank represents; that letter remains unchanged
for the rest of the game unless the play is challenged off. The player announces
the score for that play, and then draws tiles from the bag equal to the number of tiles
played, so that there are seven tiles on their rack. If there are not enough tiles, the
player draws any remaining tiles instead. If the game is played using a clock, the player
starts the opponent's clock after announcing the score and before drawing tiles. Players
may keep track of tiles played during the game.

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 challenged word(s) are then
searched in the agreed-upon word list or dictionary. If at least one challenged word is
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, 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]

A game of magnetic Pocket Scrabble approaching its end,

when players have fewer than seven tiles remaining
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 neither player can
form a valid play. (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.[18])
 In tournament play, when either player exceeds 10 minutes of overtime.
At the end of the game, 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' unplayed tiles is added
to that player's score. This rule differs slightly in most tournaments; a player who plays
out adds twice this sum, and the opponent's score is unchanged.

Scoring
[edit]
Premium square colors

Mattel Hasbro
Mattel
Original version Version
Square version
version (2012– (2008–
(2020-)
2020) 2014)

Light
Double letter (DLS) Light blue Dark blue Bright blue
blue

Triple letter (TLS) Blue Hot pink Blue Green

Double word
Pink Yellow Yellow Red
(DWS)

Light
Triple word (TWS) Red Red Orange
green

The score for a play is determined as follows:

 The value of each tile is indicated with a point value (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.

Example of a Scrabble game using Quackle, an open-

source program. The plays QUITE, MES(QUITE), INFaNCY, and RECO(UN)TS score 48, 57,
88, and 40 points, respectively.
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 points.

Player 2 extends the play to form the word MES(QUITE) 8A with the M on the TWS at
8A. The score for this play is 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

points. Because all 7 tiles were played on this turn, a 50-point bonus is added, and the
score for this play is 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 points. Player 1 is ahead 136–97.

Acceptable words
[edit]
See also: Category:Scrabble lexica
All words of length 2 to 15 letters that appear in the agreed-upon dictionary or lexicon
are acceptable words in Scrabble, as are all their inflected forms and plurals. Words that
contain apostrophes, are hyphenated or capitalized (such as proper nouns) are
generally not allowed unless they also appear as acceptable entries; for example, words
such as HERES, JACK and TEXAS, while typically containing an apostrophe or
considered a proper noun, have unrelated meanings and are therefore acceptable in
major Scrabble lexicons. Acronyms and abbreviations are generally not allowed unless
they have separate entries (such as AWOL, RADAR, SCUBA, and WYSIWYG[19]).
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 generally not allowed in English-language Scrabble unless they have been
incorporated into the English language, such as the words QI,[20] 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.[21] 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."[22] 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, 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 (NWL), 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 NWL2023,[23] effective February 2024, and the Official
Scrabble Players Dictionary, published by Merriam-Webster, is currently in its seventh
edition of 2022. 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 2021 edition, known as CSW21 (Versions of this lexicon before 2007 were
known as SOWPODS). Historically, this list has contained all OTCWL words plus words
sourced from the Chambers and Collins English dictionaries, but recent editorial
decisions have caused greater discrepancies between CSW and NWL. CSW is
commonly used to adjudicate major tournaments 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.[24]

Challenges
[edit]
Main article: Challenge (Scrabble)
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, an option known
as "void" may be used, wherein unacceptable words are automatically rejected by the
program. The player is then required to make another play, with no penalty applied.)

The penalty for an unsuccessful challenge (where all words challenged in the play are
deemed valid) varies considerably, including:

 "Double Challenge", in which an unsuccessfully challenging player must forfeit the

next turn. This penalty governs North American (NASPA-sanctioned) OWL
tournament play,[5] and is the standard for North American, Israeli, and Thai clubs.
Because loss of a turn generally constitutes the greatest risk for an unsuccessful
challenge, it provides the greatest incentive for a player to "bluff", or play a "phony" –
a plausible word that they know or suspect to be unacceptable, hoping their
opponent will not challenge it. Or a player can put down a legal word that appears to
be a phony hoping the other player will incorrectly challenge it and lose their turn.
 "Single Challenge"/"Free Challenge", in which no penalty whatsoever is applied to a
player who unsuccessfully challenges. This is the default rule in Ireland and the
United Kingdom, as well as for many tournaments in Australia, although these
countries do sanction occasional tournaments using other challenge rules.
 Modified "Single Challenge", in which an unsuccessful challenge does not result in
the loss of the challenging player's turn, but is penalized by the loss of a specified
number of points. The most common penalty is 5 points. The rule has been adopted
in Singapore (since 2000), Malaysia (since 2002), South Africa (since 2003), New
Zealand (since 2004), and Kenya, as well as in contemporary World Scrabble
Championships (since 2001) and North American (NASPA-sanctioned) Collins
tournaments, and particularly prestigious Australian tournaments.[25] Some countries
and tournaments (including Sweden) use a 10-point penalty instead. In most game
situations, this penalty is much lower than that of the "double challenge" rule.
Consequently, such tournaments encourage greater willingness to challenge and
discourage playing dubious words.
Under tournament rules, a player may request to "hold" the opponent's play to consider
whether to challenge it, provided that the opponent has not yet drawn replacement tiles.
The holding player's clock still runs, and the opponent cannot draw replacement tiles for
15 seconds or until the hold is released but may draw tiles afterward (which must be
kept separate). If a player successfully challenges, the opponent must reveal any
replacement tiles before returning them to the bag.

Competitive play
[edit]
Club and tournament play
[edit]
Main article: English-language Scrabble
See also: Category:Scrabble competitions
Tens of thousands play club and tournament Scrabble worldwide. The rules and
equipment in tournament Scrabble differ somewhat from those typically found in casual
play. For example, all tournament (and most club) games are played with a game
clock and a set time control, and are only between two players (or occasionally, two
teams of players). A player who goes overtime does not immediately lose the game (as
in chess), but is instead assessed a 10-point penalty per minute.[26][27] Also, the original
wooden tiles are not allowed in tournaments as it is possible for players to "feel" the tiles
in the bag (especially blank tiles);[11] thus, molded plastic tiles are often used. Players are
allowed tracking sheets containing the tile distribution, from which tiles can be crossed
off as they are played.

Regularly held major tournaments include:

1. The WESPA Championship (formerly the World Scrabble Championship): an

invitational championship organized by WESPA.
2. The Scrabble Players Championship (formerly North American Scrabble
Championship): organized by NASPA Games, an open event attracting several
hundred players, held around July–August every year in the United States.
3. The National Scrabble Championship: organized by the Association of British
Scrabble Players (ABSP) and held every year in the United Kingdom.
 4. The Brand's Crossword Game King's Cup: the largest tournament in the world.
Held annually in Thailand around the end of June or the beginning of July.
5. The UK Open: the largest Scrabble tournament in Europe, held annually
in Coventry in England, since 2008.
Other important tournaments include:

1. The World Youth Scrabble Championships: entry by country qualification,

restricted to under 18 years old. Held annually since 2006.
2. The National School Scrabble Championship: entry open to North American
school students. Held annually since 2003.
3. The Canadian Scrabble Championship: entry by invitation only to the top fifty
Canadian players. Held every two to three years.
4. The Singapore Open Scrabble Championship: international Singapore
championship held annually since 1997.
Scrabble clubs typically meet weekly and may typically hold one or more open,
sanctioned tournaments per year.

Records
[edit]
The following records were achieved during international competitive club or tournament
play, according to authoritative sources, including the book Everything Scrabble by Joe
Edley and John D. Williams Jr. (revised edition, Pocket Books, 2001) and the Scrabble
FAQ.[28] When available, separate records are listed based upon different official word
lists:

1. OTCWL, the North American list, also used in Thailand and Israel, known today
as the NASPA Word List (NWL);
2. OSW, formerly the official list in the UK;
3. SOWPODS, the combined OTCWL+OSW list now used in much of the world,
known today as Collins Scrabble Words.
To date, new editions or revisions of these lists have not been considered substantial
enough to warrant separate record-keeping.

 High game (OTCWL) – 830 by Michael Cresta (Massachusetts), at the Lexington

(Massachusetts) club, October 12, 2006. Cresta defeated Wayne Yorra 830–490. [29]
[30]

 High game (OTCWL) in a tournament game – 803 by Joel Sherman (New York), at
a tournament in Stamford, Connecticut, December 9, 2011. Sherman defeated
Bradley Robbins 803–285, playing a record-tying seven bingos and sticking Robbins
with the Q.[31]
 High game (OSW) – 793 by Peter Preston (UK), 1999.[32]
 High game (SOWPODS) – Toh Weibin set a record score of 850 at the Northern
Ireland Championships on January 21, 2012. The winning margin of 591 points is
also believed to be a record.[33][34][35]
 High combined score (OTCWL) – 1320 (830–490) by Michael Cresta and Wayne
Yorra, in a Lexington, Massachusetts, club, 2006.[29][30]
 High combined score (OTCWL) in a tournament game – 1134 (582–552) by Keith
Smith (Texas) and Stefan Rau (Connecticut), Round 12 of the 2008 Dallas Open.
(Rau's losing score of 552 included three phony words that were not challenged.)[36]
 High combined score (OTCWL) in a tournament game with no phony words
played – 1127 (725–402) by Laurie Cohen (Arizona) and Nigel Peltier (Washington),
in a tournament in Ahwatukee, Arizona, February 16, 2009.[37]
 High combined score (SOWPODS) – 1210 (721–489) by Edward Okulicz (Australia
and Michael McKenna (Australia), at the 2013 Janboree in NSW.[38]
 Highest losing score (OTCWL) – 552 by Stefan Rau (Connecticut) to Keith Smith's
(Texas) 582, Round 12 of the 2008 Dallas Open.[36]
 Highest tie game (OTCWL) – 502–502 by John Chew and Zev Kaufman, at a 1997
Toronto Club tournament.[39]
 Highest tie game (SOWPODS) – 532–532 by Sinatarn Pattanasuwanna (Thailand)
and Tawan Paepolsiri (Thailand) at the 2012 World Youth Scrabble Championship.
[40]

 Highest opening move score (OTCWL) – MuZJIKS (with a blank for the U) 126 by
Jesse Inman (South Carolina) at the National Scrabble Championship, 2008.[41] The
highest possible legal score on a first turn is MUZJIKS 128, using an actual U rather
than a blank. (Note: The odds of drawing MUZJIKS without blanks is 9 in
432,325,411, or 1 in [42])
 Highest opening move score (SOWPODS) – BEZIQUE 124 by Sam Kantimathi
(1993),[43] Joan Rosenthal[44] and Sally Martin.[44]
 Highest single play (OTCWL) – QUIXOTRY 365 by Michael Cresta
(Massachusetts), 2006.[29][30]
 Highest single play (SOWPODS) – CAZIQUES 392 by Karl Khoshnaw.[45]
 Highest average score, multi-day tournament (OSPD) – 503 by James Leong
(Saskatchewan) over 12 rounds at Brandon, Man., 2015.[46] 484 by Doug Brockmeier
(California) over 12 rounds at Elmhurst, Illinois, 2011.[47] 471 by Chris Cree (Texas)
over 18 rounds at the Bayou Bash in Houston, Tex., 2007.[48]
 Highest average score, multi-day tournament (SOWPODS) – 499.94 by Nigel
Richards (MY) over 16 rounds at the 7th Lim Boon Heng Cup, Singapore, 2009.[49]
 Highest average score, one day tournament (SOWPODS) – 548 by Jackson Smylie
of Toronto, Ontario, over 5 rounds at Caledon, Ontario
 Highest average score, one day tournament (OTCWL) – 532 by Jackson Smylie
over 4 rounds at North American Scrabble Championship early bird in Las Vegas
Two other records are believed[citation needed] to have been achieved under a British format
known as the "high score rule", in which a player's tournament result is determined only
by the player's own scores, and not by the differentials between that player's scores and
the opponents'. Play in this system "encourages elaborate setups often independently
mined by the two players",[32] and is significantly different from the standard game in
which defensive considerations play a major role. While the "high score" rule has led to
impressively high records, it is currently out of favor.[citation needed]
 High game score – 1,049 by Phil Appleby of Lymington, Hampshire, UK, on June
25, 1989, in Wormley, Hertfordshire, UK. His opponent scored just 253 points, giving
Appleby a record victory margin of 796 points.
 High single play – CAZIQUES for 392, by Saladin Karl Khoshnaw[45] in Manchester,
UK, in April 1982.
Much higher-scoring plays are possible (e.g., plays covering three TWS squares), but
extremely unlikely to occur without elaborate setups by both players. The highest
reported score for a single play is 1786 points using the word oxyphenbutazone creating
seven additional words simultaneously.[50] When only adding the
word SESQUIOXIDIZING to these official lists, one could theoretically score 2015
(OSPD) and 2044 (SOWPODS) points in a single move.[51] The highest reported
combined score for a theoretical game based on SOWPODS is 4054 points,
constructed by Nathan Hedt of Australia.[52] Other records are available for viewing
at Total Scrabble, an unofficial record book that includes the above as sources and
expands on other topics.

In August 1984, Peter Finan and Neil Smith played Scrabble for 153 hours at St.
Anselm's College, Birkenhead, Merseyside, setting a new duration record. A longer
record was never recorded by Guinness Book of Records, as the publishers decided
that duration records of this nature were becoming too dangerous and stopped
accepting them.[53]

Software
[edit]
See also: Category:Scrabble software
Computer players
[edit]
Maven is a computer opponent for the game created by Brian Sheppard. The
official Scrabble computer game in North America uses a version of Maven as its
artificial intelligence and is published by Atari. Outside North America, the
official Scrabble computer game is published by Ubisoft. Quackle is an open-source
alternative to Maven of comparable strength, created by a five-person team led by
Jason Katz-Brown.[54] A Qt cross-platform version of Quackle is available on GitHub.[55]

Video game versions

[edit]
Video game versions of Scrabble have been released for various platforms,
including IBM PC compatibles, Mac, Amiga,[56] Commodore 64,[57] ZX Spectrum,[58] Game
Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance,[59] Nintendo DS,[60] PlayStation,[61] PlayStation
4, PlayStation Portable,[62] iPod, iOS, Game.com, Palm OS, Amstrad CPC, Xbox
360, Kindle,[63] Wii,[64] and mobile phones.
The Nintendo DS version of Scrabble 2007 Edition made news when parents became
angry over the game's AI using potentially offensive language during gameplay.[65]

Web versions
[edit]
Several websites offer the possibility to play Scrabble online against other users, such
as the Internet Scrabble Club, Pogo.com from Electronic Arts (North America only),
and woogles.io.

Facebook initially offered a variation of Scrabble called Scrabulous as a third-party

application add-on. On July 24, 2008, Hasbro filed a copyright infringement lawsuit
against its developers.[66] Four days later, Scrabulous was disabled for users in North
America,[67] eventually reappearing as "Lexulous" in September 2008, with changes
made to distinguish it from Scrabble. By December 20, Hasbro had withdrawn its
lawsuit.[68]

Mattel launched its official version of online Scrabble, Scrabble by Mattel, on Facebook
in late March 2008.[69][70] The application was developed by Gamehouse, a division
of RealNetworks that was licensed by Mattel.[70] Since Hasbro controls the copyright for
North America with the copyright for the rest of the world belonging to Mattel, [69] the
Gamehouse Facebook application was available only to players outside the United
States and Canada.[70] The version developed by Electronic Arts for Hasbro was
available throughout the world.

When Gamehouse ceased support for its application, Mattel replaced it with the
Electronic Arts version in May 2013. This decision was met with criticism from its
userbase.[71] The Hasbro version continues to be available worldwide but now uses IP
lookup to display Hasbro branding to North American players and Mattel branding to the
rest of the world. Electronic Arts have also released mobile apps for Android and iOS,
allowing players to continue the same game on more than one platform.

As well as facilities to play occasional games online, there are many options to play in
leagues.[72]

In 2020, the license for Scrabble passed from Electronic Arts to Scopely, which
launched the app Scrabble GO on March 5, 2020, with the Electronic Arts version
discontinued on June 5, 2020.[73] The new app was very different, leading to protests,
and Scopely soon began to offer a 'Classic' version, without some of the extras initially
offered: "this updated mode is reimagined to reflect the ask for a streamlined
experience. Features such as boosts, rewards and all other game modes are disabled",
the company announced.[74]

Variations
[edit]
Super Scrabble
[edit]
Main article: Super Scrabble
A new licensed product, Super Scrabble, was launched in North America by Winning
Moves Games in 2004 under license from Hasbro, with the deluxe version (with
turntable and lock-in grid) released in February 2007. A Mattel-licensed product for the
rest of the world was released by Tinderbox Games in 2006. This set comprises 200
tiles in slightly modified distribution to the standard set and a 21×21 playing board.

National versions
[edit]
Further information: Scrabble letter distributions
Versions of the game have been released in several other languages.

The game was called Alfapet when it was introduced in Sweden in 1954, but since the
mid-1990s, the game has also been known as Scrabble in Sweden. Alfapet is now
another crossword game, developed by the owners of the name Alfapet. A Russian
version is called Erudit. A Hebrew version is called Shabets Na (‫)שבץ נא‬. Versions have
been prepared for Dakotah, Haitian Creole, Dakelh (Carrier language), and Tuvan.[75]

For languages with digraphs counted as single letters, such as Welsh and Hungarian,
the game features separate tiles for those digraphs.

An Irish-language version of Scrabble was published by Glór na nGael in 2010. The

previous year the same organisation published the Junior version of the game and two
years later it republished Junior Scrabble using a two-sided (and two skill level) board.

Television game show version

[edit]
Main article: Scrabble (game show)
In 1987, a board game was released by Selchow & Righter, based on the game
show hosted by Chuck Woolery that aired on NBC from 1984 to 1990 (and for five
months in 1993). Billed as the "Official Home Version" of the game show (or officially as
the "TV Scrabble Home Game"), gameplay bears more resemblance to the game show
than it does to a traditional Scrabble game, although it does utilize a
traditional Scrabble gameboard in play.

Games based on Scrabble

[edit]
Main article: Scrabble variants
There are numerous variations of the game. While they are similar to the
original Scrabble game, they include minor variations. For example, Literati draws
random tiles instead of providing a finite number of tiles for the game, assigns different
point levels to each letter and has a slightly different board layout, whereas Lexulous
assigns eight letters to each player instead of seven. Words with Friends uses a
different board layout and different letter values, as does Words of Gold.

A duplicate Scrabble tournament in La Bresse, France

Duplicate Scrabble is a popular variant in French speaking countries. Every player has
the same letters on the same board and the players must submit a paper slip at the end
of the allotted time (usually 3 minutes) with the highest scoring word they have found.
This is the format used for the French World Scrabble Championships but it is also used
in Romanian and Dutch. There is no limit to the number of players that can be involved
in one game,