Zoomer Ixnayed Dumpster Guac

November 16, 2022 9:22 AM

The seventh edition of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary is out this month.

Last updated in 2018, this version adds about 500 new words, including the potentially high-scoring 'fauxhawk' and the perfectly cromulent 'embiggen.' Other new additions include 'deadname,' 'horchata,' 'zaatar,' 'zonkey,' and 'zoomer.'

posted by box (26 comments total)

I feel like "one who zooms" should have already been allowed.
posted by Etrigan at 9:30 AM on November 16, 2022 [3 favorites]

The real news here is that embiggen is finally cromulent.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:40 AM on November 16, 2022 [9 favorites]

ah, dip, I was beaten to the punch.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:41 AM on November 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

(still waiting on cromulency)
posted by Going To Maine at 9:41 AM on November 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

Well, now I know what to get my parents for Christmas.
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:53 AM on November 16, 2022

is there a list of the new words anywhere?
what are the new two and three-letter words. does any new two-letter word start with C?
this is information I can use for Words With Friends
posted by chavenet at 9:53 AM on November 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

For tournament players, NWL2020 still pertains I think.
posted by lalochezia at 9:54 AM on November 16, 2022

Have there been any Scrabble® documentaries of note since 2004's Word Wars?
posted by infinitewindow at 9:55 AM on November 16, 2022

(still waiting on cromulency)

Misread as cromulomancy, which is actually what the OSPD is engaging in here: the dark art of rendering croumlent that which once was not.
posted by The Bellman at 10:07 AM on November 16, 2022 [8 favorites]

S-E-B-F-A-R-G, n. (from French), one of the ten protoids, a self-reproducing fuel source.
posted by zaixfeep at 10:28 AM on November 16, 2022

Answering my own question: 'Ew' and other Words Added to the Scrabble Dictionary 2018

so, C remains the only letter without a two-letter word.
posted by chavenet at 11:32 AM on November 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

V, too, last I checked.
posted by box at 11:45 AM on November 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

If using the UK English dictionary, "Ch" is a 2-letter word.
posted by Chuffy at 11:53 AM on November 16, 2022

Words With Friends accepts VU

not valid for Scrabble tho.

Apparently CH is ok for Scrabble (?)
posted by chavenet at 11:54 AM on November 16, 2022

Oh, I've been waiting for "dox".
posted by mollweide at 12:34 PM on November 16, 2022

(Again last I checked, CH is ok for Scrabble tournament play in England and most English-speaking countries (Collins Word List or CWL), but not in the United States (Tournament Word list or TWL).)
posted by box at 12:55 PM on November 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

Families are going to be throwing hands at Christmas over this, mark my words.
posted by mhoye at 1:27 PM on November 16, 2022

I'm surprised the zonkey didn't have had its own FPP
posted by rhizome at 1:30 PM on November 16, 2022 [2 favorites]

No "cromulent"? What a Duke-tastrophe!
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:07 PM on November 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

For a moment I thought box's comment said that "CWL" and "TWL" are some of the new Scrabble words and was like "Huh, from the Welsh, I guess?"
posted by basalganglia at 2:32 PM on November 16, 2022

Finally, queso takes its rightful place aside fromage.

Honestly though I would argue that queso is an English word referring to a specific kind of cheese sauce, while fromage has no common English use other than when the speaker wants to sound French.
posted by Jon_Evil at 2:38 PM on November 16, 2022 [2 favorites]

Zoomer Ixnayed Dumpster Guac

Diceware recommends six words nowadays.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:00 PM on November 16, 2022 [5 favorites]

"Verbing weirds language"
posted by Ayn Marx at 8:25 PM on November 16, 2022

I refuse to play with the scrabble dictionary — instead, I insist on a Webster’s or some other standard desktop dictionary.

Yes yes yes I know I know, I’m totally missing the point blah blah blah it’s not about vocabulary it’s about skill at playing the game blah blah blah yes I know all language is relative and prescriptivism is unfashionable (and politically untrustworthy). But still. No game should depend on rote memorization of some arbitrary set of words that are only sometimes words. That’s not even fun.

Yes, I know I’m wrong. No, I will not be playing in any tournaments anytime soon. And no, I’ve never had a scrabble dictionary devotee refuse to play me when I insisted on a Webster’s.

So it’s fine.
posted by panama joe at 10:51 PM on November 16, 2022 [6 favorites]

… fromage has no common English use other than when the speaker wants to sound French.

In Wisconsin, as a prom dance ritual, a young one gives their sweetie a fromage, which is a stylish arrangement of cheeses they pin to their gown.
posted by waving at 5:22 PM on November 17, 2022 [2 favorites]

I refuse to play with the scrabble dictionary — instead, I insist on a Webster’s or some other standard desktop dictionary.

I don't think I've played Scrabble since I first got a spacephone, but can't imagine using a dictionary and not just googling words if they are questioned. I've always played Scrabble fast and loose anyway, way too many words that aren't in a dictionary. Dictionaries are also colossally slow to adapt to language, while in th real world we can invent a new one in the morning and by night it's part of 6 different meme formats and has it's own spinoff words.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:00 AM on November 18, 2022