On August 6, Merriam-Webster will release the Fifth Edition of The Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary, marking the dictionary’s first major update in nearly a decade. More than 5,000 new words will be added to the dictionary making them officially playable in the game, including GEOCACHE, a word chosen by fans in the SCRABBLE Word Showdown earlier this year. Players in the U.S. and Canada will now be able to score with new words such as: BEATBOX, CHILLAX, FRENEMY, HASHTAG, JOYPAD, MIXTAPE, MOJITO, PONZU, SELFIE, SOJU, SUDOKU, TEXTER, VODCAST, VLOG, and YUZU.
“Language is constantly evolving and new words are added to Merriam-Webster dictionaries on an ongoing basis,” explains Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster. “Now thousands of those words can officially be played on the SCRABBLE game board, as long as they meet the SCRABBLE game’s criteria for length and styling.”
Entries in the new edition feature a brief definition, a part-of-speech label, and inflected forms for fast, easy word validation. The new dictionary is endorsed by the North American SCRABBLE Players Association (NASPA) for recreational and school use, and the new words from the Fifth Edition will be sanctioned for use in official club and tournament play on December 1, 2014.
“With thousands of new words, this edition will boost scores for players of all levels,” says John Chew, Co-President of NASPA. “Tell your opponent how your letters make you feel with AIYEE, MEH, OOF, or YESSIREE, or show off your GAMEPLAY by scoring 401 points for QUINZHEE!”
Words are inducted into The Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary if they meet specific rules. Words inducted 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 – 8 letters in length.
Digital versions of the dictionary will be available for iOS, Android, and Kindle later this month. The dictionary will also be available to play later this year in the digital versions of the SCRABBLE game.
