Revision as of 17:14, 4 June 2020

The NASPA Word of the Day (WOTD) helps you build your SCRABBLE® vocabulary one word at a time. Beginners can learn unusual and useful words, while experts can see how those words fit together with the rest of the game's lexicon.

How to Read the WOTD Page

Each word comes with a page full of information about it and several lists of related words. Remembering related words helps reinforce vocabulary in your memory, and trying to come up with the lists on your own first will test even the best player's skills.

Definition

This is just the definition of the word, as listed in the Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary. Players who study OSPD definitions of words are a small minority among tournament players.

Notes

A few words have some additional notes expanding on the definition.

Anagrams

Two words are anagrams if they are spelled using exactly the same letters in a different order. For example, ANTSIER, ANESTRI, NASTIER, RATINES, RETAINS, RETINAS, RETSINA, STAINER and STEARIN are all anagrams. Remembering sets of anagrams will often let you play a word after first finding its unplayable anagram.

Hooks

A letter that can be played at the front or the back of another word to form a new word is called a hook. By metonymy (transference), the new word can also be called a hook. For example, you can hook a Y on the end of METONYM to make METONYMY. Learning unusual hooks will let you set up and find places to put words that your opponent may not know.

Ana-hooks

An ana-hook is a letter that can be added to a word to make a set of letters that has an anagram. Again, by metonymy, the anagram can be called an ana-hook. Learning ana-hooks will let you quickly play letters on your rack through letters on the board.

'Typos'

A 'typo' is a word that looks like a mistake for another word, either because one of its letters is wrong (e.g., PENCEL) or because two of its letters are transposed (e.g., STRONGYL). Playing unusual 'typos' may sometimes draw challenges from your opponents.

Blana-grams

A blana-gram is a word that would be an anagram if one of its letters were replaced by a blank. Knowing your blana-grams makes finding a way to score well with one or two blanks on your rack easier. Any typo is also a blana-gram, so our list shows only those blana-grams that are not typos.

Extensions

An extension is like a hook, but consists of more than just a single letter. Extensions let you stretch a word to reach a double word score or triple word score premium square and score well with tiles already on the board.

Sub-anagrams

A sub-anagram is a word that can be spelled using some (but not all) of the letters in a word. If you can list all of the sub-anagrams of a rack, you'll know a lot of useful shorter words.

You're now ready to see what today's NASPA Word of the Day is.

• If a word is asterisked, it means it's not acceptable in the current lexicon.

Where do these words come from

All of the content of the WOTD page is automatically generated, except for the choice of the word itself. The reference lexicon is the Official Tournament and Club Word List, which is the official lexicon for tournament and club play in Canada and the United States. Definitions are mostly taken from the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, except possibly for some that were separately entered for long words or recent additions to the OSPD.