Did your favorite word make the cut?
Scrabble fans looking to beat their opponents will want to pick up the latest edition of the game’s official dictionary as 300 new words have been added to it.
It had been four years since the bible for Scrabble players was last updated, in August of 2014, and many frustrated competitors have been longing to use words that have entered the general lexicon since then.
Fortunately, The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, Sixth Edition was released this month from dictionary company Merriam-Webster‘s publishing house, according to a press release.
“The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary evolves to keep up with English as it is used today,” said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor-at-large.
“For a living language, the only constant is change. New dictionary entries reflect our language and our culture, including rich sources of new words such as communication technology and food terms from foreign languages.”
Meanwhile, Jonathan Berkowitz, the president of Hasbro Brands, who produce the game in the United States and Canada, hopes that the addition of these new words will help make the more than 70-year-old game “even more entertaining and relevant.”
So, what are some of the 300 new words that can now be officially played in a Scrabble game?
There are technological-related words like bitcoin, bokeh, and emoji, and foreign foods that have become popular like aquafaba, arancini, bibimbap, cotija, macaron, and sriracha.
Then there’s puggle, bestie, ew, ok, facepalm, listicle, hivemind, beatdown, zomboid, sheeple, twerk, and yowza.
Sokolowski told the Associated Press that the word ok is one that “Scrabble players have been waiting for, for a long time.”
With ew and ok now in the dictionary, that brings the number of allowable two-letter words up to 106, noted Merriam-Webster.
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Another new addition to the dictionary that Sokolowski thinks players will love is the word qapik, which is a monetary unit in Azerbaijan.
“Every time there’s a word with q and no u, it’s a big deal,” he said. “Most of these are obscure.”
In order to be eligible for entry into the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, words must meet specific criteria laid out in the game’s rules: “Words must be found in a standard dictionary and cannot be abbreviations, capitalized words, or words containing hyphens or apostrophes. All words must also be between 2 [and] 8 letters in length.”
Merriam-Webster also consulted the North American Scrabble Players Association for their input.
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The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, Sixth Edition is available now in hardcover for $25.95, trade paperback for $16.95, and mass-market paperback for $8.50 wherever books are sold.
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