Comments on: Why isn't 'commotion' in the Scrabble dictionary?

Question: Why isn't 'commotion' in the Scrabble dictionary?

mark7570 — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 15:15:43 -0800

Why is the word "commotion" not in the Scrabble dictionary? I have the paperback official Scrabble players' dictionary, and it's not in there in any form.

By: occhiblu

occhiblu — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 15:21:22 -0800

Do you have an edition that includes nine-letter words? From the Scrabble website:

Is there an "official" dictionary for SCRABBLE Players?
Yes, Merriam-Webster's Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary, 3rd Edition (OSPD3). For club and tournament play, it is the Official Tournament and Club Word List (OWL), also published by Merriam-Webster, Inc. It is derived from the Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary, Second 2nd Edition and The Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary, Third 3rd Edition, supplemented with nine-letter words and their inflected forms taken from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth 10th Edition. This book contains words only, no definitions or part-of-speech labels, and includes all inflected forms spelled out in full.

By: Silky Slim

Silky Slim — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 15:23:11 -0800

occhiblu beat me to it.
it only has words with up to 8 letters.

By: Specklet

Specklet — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 15:40:26 -0800

Right. But if someone put "motion" on the board, you could add "com", I suppose.

By: box

box — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 15:57:40 -0800

Or if someone put MM on the board, you could add CO and OTION.

The OSPD is not a very good dictionary--quite a few words were removed (for indecency- and/or marketing-related reasons) between the second and third editions, and these days it isn't even authoritative within its own very limited sphere of influence.

By: occhiblu

occhiblu — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 16:20:04 -0800

Specklet, yes, but from what I remember, the Scrabble dictionary goes up to only eight letters, and then suggests you use the Merriam-Webster for any bigger words. So, they certainly allow "commotion," but it falls outside the sphere of the limited Scrabble dictionary.

By: ilovebicuspids

ilovebicuspids — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 17:51:25 -0800

I agree with box. Overall, it's just not a very good dictionary. Imagine my horror having my triple-word score (and the game!) stolen from me because apparently, "zen" isn't a word in the world of scrabble. My scrabble game hasn't been the same since.

By: jacobm

jacobm — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 18:02:35 -0800

ilovebicuspids: I agree that it's not a good dictionary, but "zen" isn't a word in Scrabble because it's a proper noun (a particular school of Buddhism).

By: ThePants

ThePants — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 09:54:01 -0800

I currently use Moshe Jacobson's Margana to resolve Scrabble disputes and quickly examine positions after a game.

He says it uses OSPD3, but it contains many words longer than 8 letters.