 First edition | |
| Author | Merriam-Webster, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Merriam-Webster, Inc. |
| Publication place | United States |
| ISBN | 978-0-87779-596-4 (sixth mass-market-paperback edition) |
| 793.734 | |
The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary or OSPD is a dictionary developed for use in the game Scrabble, by speakers of American and Canadian English.
The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary was first published in 1978 through the efforts of the National Scrabble Association (NSA) Dictionary Committee and Merriam-Webster, primarily in response to a need for a word authority for NSA-sanctioned clubs and tournaments. Prior to its publication, Scrabble clubs and tournaments used Funk & Wagnalls Standard College Dictionary as an official word source, but as tournament play grew, this source proved unsatisfactory. The inclusion of foreign words such as "Ja" and "Oui", the exclusion of common words such as "coven" and "surreal", and a lack of clear guidance on the creation of comparative terms, were all problematic for Scrabble players. [1]
Games manufacturers Selchow and Righter, the owners of Scrabble at the time, approached Merriam-Webster Inc. to assist with the compilation of an official Scrabble dictionary. They proposed that words should be included in the new dictionary if they appeared in the five in-print collegiate dictionaries, namely The Random House College Dictionary (1968), The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1969), Webster's New World Dictionary (1970), Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (1973) and Funk & Wagnalls (1973). [1] Main entries in the OSPD contain from two to eight letters since those are considered to be the most useful.
The compilation was produced by hand and many errata and omissions were later discovered. For example, the word granola was present in all five nominated dictionaries but not in the OSPD. A second edition, OSPD 2, was released in 1991. The current edition is OSPD 7, released in November 2022.
Although OSPD bears the name Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, no country’s competitive organization lists the OSPD as its official dictionary; the NASPA Word List is the official word list for tournament Scrabble in the United States, Canada, Thailand and Israel. [2] Merriam-Webster markets the OSPD as ideal for school and family use.
In 1993 a Virginia woman found several racial slurs in OSPD 2, including "jew", listed as a verb with the definition "To bargain with – an offensive term". [3] (The more conventional sense of "member of a certain ethnoreligious group; Jewish person" was not listed because the dictionary did not include proper nouns.) Her initial letters to Merriam-Webster and Milton Bradley requesting removal of the words resulted in politely negative responses. Merriam-Webster responded "[the] slurs are part of the language and reputable dictionaries record them as such." Milton Bradley responded "As a dictionary, it is a reflection of words currently used in our language." [4]
She wrote to several social justice organizations, and the National Council of Jewish Women began a letter-writing campaign in support of her cause. Publicity in Jewish media led to the Anti-Defamation League writing to Hasbro chairman Alan Hassenfeld. Hasbro announced that a third edition would be published with racial slurs removed, as well as words like "farted", "fatso", and "boobie". [4] After receiving mostly negative feedback from players, including threats to boycott events, the NSA president announced a compromise. The Official Tournament and Club Word List , the predecessor of today’s NASPA Word List, would include the offensive words but not provide definitions. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, intended for casual play, would exclude several offensive words. [5]
A fourth edition of the dictionary was published by Hasbro in 2005, which contained around 4000 additional words, including strategically useful two-letter words "QI" and "ZA".
A fifth edition was published on August 6, 2014. New words include the two-letter words "DA", "GI", "PO", and "TE". A contest [6] to nominate and choose a new word to add to the lexicon was held online, and "GEOCACHE" was voted into the new lexicon. [7]
The sixth edition was released on September 24, 2018. 300 new words were added, including "OK", "EW", "ZEN", "EMOJI", "FACEPALM", and "QAPIK". [8]
The seventh edition was released on November 15, 2022, adding about 500 new words. Included in this edition are "YEEHAW," "ZOOMER," "BAE," and "DUMPSTER," which was previously considered a trademark. [9]
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.
Boggle is a word game in which players try to find as many words as they can from a grid of lettered dice, within a set time limit. It was invented by Allan Turoff and originally distributed by Parker Brothers.
Merriam-Webster, Incorporated is an American company that publishes reference books and is mostly known for its dictionaries. It is the oldest dictionary publisher in the United States.
The National Scrabble Association (NSA) was created in 1978 by Selchow & Righter, then the makers of Scrabble, to promote their game. It coordinated local clubs and Scrabble tournaments in North America, including the National Scrabble Championship, until 2009. The last director was John D. Williams, who is co-author of the book Everything Scrabble.
Collins Scrabble Words is the word list used in English-language tournament Scrabble in most countries except the US, Thailand and Canada. The term SOWPODS is an anagram of the two abbreviations OSPD and OSW, these being the original two official dictionaries used in various parts of the world at the time. Although the two source dictionaries have now changed their respective titles, the term SOWPODS is still used by tournament players to refer to the combination of the two sources. There has not been any actual hard-copy list produced called SOWPODS, although the current Collins Scrabble Words, or CSW, is in effect the full SOWPODS list by a different name.
The Scrabble Players Championship is the largest Scrabble competition in North America. The event is currently held every year, and from 2004 through 2006 the finals were aired on ESPN and ESPN2. The 2023 event was held in Las Vegas from July 15–19, 2023, with Joshua Sokol emerging as champion.
Word Freak is a nonfiction narrative by Stefan Fatsis published in 2001 (ISBN 0-618-01584-1).
The National Council of Jewish Women(NCJW) is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Founded in 1893, NCJW is self-described as the oldest Jewish women's grassroots organization in the United States, currently comprising over 180,000 members. As of 2021, there are 60 sections in 30 states. Specifically, NCJW's policies address expanding abortion access, securing federal judicial appointments, promoting voting integrity, and mobilizing Israeli feminist movements. These objectives are achieved through lobbying, research, education, and community engagement. NCJW's headquarters are located in Washington, D.C., and the organization maintains offices in other cities in the U.S. and in Israel.
The following articles list English words that share certain features in common.
In Scrabble, a challenge is the act of one player questioning the validity of one or more words formed by another player on the most recent turn. In double challenge, if one or more of the challenged words is not in the agreed-upon dictionary or word source, the challenged player loses her/his turn. If all challenged words are acceptable, the challenger loses his/her turn.
NASPA Word List is the official word authority for tournament Scrabble in the USA and Canada under the aegis of NASPA Games. It is based on the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (OSPD) with modifications to make it more suitable for tournament play. Its British and international-English counterpart is Collins Scrabble Words.
Joel Sherman, nicknamed GI Joel, is an American professional English-language Scrabble player and former world champion. He is featured in Stefan Fatsis's book Word Freak, in Eric Chaikin's film Word Wars, and in Scott Petersen's film Scrabylon. He is also mentioned in Collins Gem's reference book.
Brian Cappelletto is a Scrabble player who represents the United States in international competition. He was the runner-up at the inaugural World Scrabble Championship in 1991 and won the event in 2001. He also won the American National Scrabble Championship in 1998, and was the runner-up in 2008 and 2010.
Stefan Fatsis is an American author and journalist. He regularly appears as a guest on National Public Radio's All Things Considered daily radio news program and as a panelist on Slate's sports podcast Hang Up and Listen. He is a former staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal.
Word Wars: Tiles and Tribulations on the Scrabble Circuit is a 2004 American documentary film directed by Eric Chaikin and Julian Petrillo about competitive Scrabble. The film was an official selection at the 2004 Sundance film festival, had a 25-city theatrical run, was included as part of the Discovery Times Channel's "Screening Room" series, and was nominated for numerous awards including a 2004 Documentary Emmy for "Best Artistic or Cultural Programming" and an International Documentary Association (IDA) Award. The film is distributed by 7th Art Releasing.
English-language Scrabble is the original version of the popular word-based board game invented in 1938 by US architect Alfred Mosher Butts, who based the game on English letter distribution in The New York Times. The Scrabble variant most popular in English is standard match play, where two players compete over a series of games. Duplicate Scrabble is not popular in English, and High score Scrabble is no longer practised.
Grawlix or obscenicon is the use of typographical symbols to replace profanity. Mainly used in cartoons and comics, it is used to get around language restrictions or censorship in publishing. At signs (@), dollar signs ($), number signs (#), ampersands (&), percent signs (%), and asterisks (*) are oft-used symbols. The characters may resemble the letters they replace, such as "$" standing in for "S".
NASPA Games, formerly known as North American Scrabble Players Association (NASPA), is a nonprofit organization founded in 2009 to administer competitive Scrabble tournaments and clubs in North America. It officially took over these activities from the National Scrabble Association (NSA) on July 1, 2009. As of July 31, 2021, the organization is no longer associated with the North American owner of the SCRABBLE® trademarks, Hasbro, Inc.
The World English-Language Scrabble Players' Association (WESPA) is the overarching global body for English-language national Scrabble associations and similar entities.
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