Alphagram – Alphabetically
sorted configuration of letters in a word or rack. E.g., AEINRST is
the alphagram RETINAS.
Anagram – A word that is spelled
with the same letters as another word, but in a different order. E.g.,
ART, RAT, and TAR are anagrams of each other. ELATION and TOENAIL are
anagrams.
Anamonic – A mnemonic that whose
letters produce valid anagrams when added to a set of letters. E.g.,
One anamonic for INMATE is “RELAXING BY HIS CELL DOOR”. Any letter in
this phrase plus the letters in INMATE will anagram to one or more
valid words. INMATE+Y anagrams to AMENITY and ANYTIME.
Binglet – A play that earns
almost as much as a bingo (i.e., more than 50 points) that is less
than seven letters, and thus earned a high score without the 50 bonus
points.
Bingo – A single play that uses
all seven letters on a rack and earns a 50-point bonus. Often used as
a verb, e.g., “S/he bingoed with RETINAS.”
Blocking – Playing a word that
prevents your opponent from making a potentially high-scoring play.
Braille – To use your hand to
feel for a specific tile (usually the blank). [Note that this is
considered cheating; see Protiles.]
Challenge – To challenge the
validity of a word or words played in a turn. Words are verified
against the official word source (currently OTCWL) by the tournament
director or a word judge. If any of the words challenged are invalid,
the player removes the entire play from the board and scores zero,
otherwise the challenger loses a turn and scores zero for the turn and
the player plays again. [This is known as the Double Challenge Rule.]
Challenge Slip – Players record
all words challenged on a slip of paper to allow the
word judge to
step away from the table if necessary. It also helps reduce errors.
Chess Clock – Chess clocks have
two separate clocks which track the time used by each opponent. A
player’s clock runs during the player’s turn. The player’s clock is
neutralized when the turn is complete, which starts the opponent’s
clock. At SCRABBLE® tournaments, each player is allotted 25 minutes on
their clock, which counts down to 0:00, and then counts negative time.
Players lose 10 points per minute or fraction used when their clocks
go negative.
Closed Board – A closed board
has few or no places to make high-scoring plays, or is difficult to
play because the words already on the board cannot be built upon
easily.
Coffeehousing – To talk or
distract your opponent while playing. [Note that this is against the
rules.]
Contestant Score Card – Players
record opponent’s name and signature, game scores,
point spread, and
number of games won or lost on their score cards.
Courtesy Rule – A player kept on
hold for more than one minute while the opponent considers a play may
draw new tiles. These tiles are kept separate and are returned to the
tile bag if the player is challenged and loses the
challenge.
Cumulative Score – The sum of
the individual turn scores for a player.
Cumulative Spread –
The sum of the individual point spreads for each game in a tournament.
Double-Double (DWS-DWS) – A play
that spans two Double Word Score squares, and earns 4 times the value
of the word played (2 x 2, or doubled twice).
Dumping – Playing unfavorable
letters which score a few points in order to balance your rack rather
than exchanging tiles and scoring zero. Also, trading particularly
unfavorable tiles which may be unplayable near the end of the game,
e.g., “dumping the Q”.
Endgame – Strategy at the end of
a game is crucial, and a mistake or a bit of luck can turn the game,
particularly when there are fewer than seven tiles in the bag
prohibiting exchanging tiles.
Exchanging Tiles – Players may
return unwanted tiles to the bag and score zero for the turn instead
of play a word if there are at least seven tiles in the bag.
Replacement tiles are drawn and placed face down prior to returning
unwanted tiles to the bag.
Extension – Adding letters
to a word already on the board to extend the word. E.g., Adding ING to
the end of PARK to form PARKING (a back extension), or adding RE to
the beginning of PLAY to form REPLAY (front extension).
Fishing – Playing one or two
tiles for a few points, keeping five or six good tiles, and hoping to
draw the tiles needed to make a high-scoring play next turn.
Franklin – A handheld device
manufactured by Franklin Electronics which can be used to lookup words
and definitions in the
OSPD. Also has anagramming,
pattern matching, and suggestion capabilities. Generically, any device
that does the same (e.g., a Palm Pilot or PocketPC with appropriate
software.)
Frequency Distribution – See
Tracking Sheet.
Hold – An opponent may ask a
player to hold rather than immediately challenging the player,
reserving the right to challenge while considering the play. See
Courtesy Rule.
Hook – A single tile
extension,
which allows a player to player to “hook” a play on the board and form
a valid word. E.g., if the word RATE is on the board, you could hook
the word READING on the front to form either GRATE or IRATE, or on the
back to form RATED.
Hot Spots – A square or area on
the board where high-scoring plays could be played. E.g., open
DLS or
TLS next to vowels, areas large enough to fit a
bingo, etc.
Inflection –
A variant form of a word which indicate case, gender, number, tense,
person, mood, or voice.
Leave – Tiles left on the rack
after a play is made.
Natural – A bingo that does not
use a blank.
Neutralizing the Clock –
Stopping the clock so that neither the player’s or the opponent’s
clock is running during a
challenge or to resolve disputes and score
discrepancies.
Nongo – A bingo which cannot be
played on a closed board.
Open Board – During play, the
board is considered "open" when there are many places to play either
bingos or other high-scoring words.
Overdrawing Tiles – Drawing more
tiles than is needed to replenish your rack after a word is played.
Parallel Play – A play made
parallel and in the adjacent row or column to an existing word on the
board, in order to maximize the turn score by making several smaller
words. E.g., playing OXY parallel to FIE earns
points for OF, XI, and YE as well as OXY:
O X Y
F I E
Passing – A voluntarily forfeited turn
in which no tiles are played or exchanged, and the player scores zero.
Phony – Any unacceptable word,
whether played intentionally or unintentionally. challenged phonies
are removed from the board and the player scores zero; unchallenged
phonies remain on the board.
Point Spread – The difference between
the players’ scores in a game. The winner records the amount as
positive; the loser records the amount as negative. E.g., if a game
results in scores of 428 and 399, the winner has a spread of +29 for
the round, and the loser has a spread of -29. See
Cumulative Spread.
Power Tiles – Tiles which tend to
result in high-scoring plays. There are ten: two blanks, four Ss, J,
X, Z, and (arguably) Q.
Protile – Custom-made plastic tiles
with smooth surfaces that cannot be brailled. Some styles also have
indentations on the back of the tiles so that a player can easily
orient the tiles to face away from an opponent while drawing from the
bag. Protiles replace the standard engraved wooden tiles which come
with a SCRABBLE® game, and are the preferred tile set used in club and
tournament play.
Rack Balancing
– Playing unfavorable letters and keeping letters on your rack that
are prone to high scores in your next turn. A balanced rack has an
even vowel-consonant ratio for even racks, or one more consonant that
vowels for odd racks.
Rack Management – Technique to maximize
scores by playing a lower-scoring play and foregoing a higher one, in
order to keep favorable tiles and make more high-scoring plays in
subsequent turns. See Dumping,
Exchanging, Fishing, and
Rack Balancing.
Rating – Players receive a rating after each sanctioned
tournament; the difference in two ratings represents the relative
strength between two players. E.g., a 1500 player is about as stronger
than a 1000 player as a 2000 player is stronger than the 1500 player.
The NSA uses an ELO formula modeled after the US Chess Federation’s
rating system to calculate ratings. The formula calculates the
probability for each player to win the game based on their ratings,
and awards points accordingly. Players with ratings above 1600 are
considered experts; 1200-1600 are intermediate; below 1200 are Novice
or Enthusiast. Currently, the highest rated players have ratings
around 2100. Ratings are used to divide players into divisions at
tournaments.
Round – One game is played per round
in clubs and tournaments.
Sand Timer – Three-minute sand timers
were used to limit a players turn in tournaments. Currently,
chess
clocks set for 25 minutes per side are preferred, although sand timers
may be used when chess
clocks are not available.
Second Opinion –
Either the player or opponent may request a second opinion in a
challenge. The word or words
challenged are checked by a different
word judge. If the two rulings contradict each other, a third opinion
is consulted.
Score Card – See
Contestant
Score Card.
Score Sheet – A paper form used to
record words played, turn score and
cumulative score, track tiles, or
make notes. Both players are responsible for recording at least the
cumulative score throughout the game.
Stems – A method of studying words
group by their common letters. E.g., 67 seven-letter words can be
formed from the rack AEINST?. The stem for 67 words is referred to as
TISANE (an anagram of AEINST).
Tile – A rectangular piece of
wood or plastic with an engraved, embedded or painted letter and a
subscripted associated point-value for the piece used to form words in
SCRABBLE®. There are 100 tiles in a standard set which vary in value
from zero for the blank to 10 points for a Q or Z tile. See Protiles.
Time Management – Technique to optimize
the amount of time available for a player to consider and make plays
by assessing the potential in a given rack and allotting the amount of
time spent accordingly. For example, a player should not was much time
in concluding that the rack IIUUVVW will not produce a
bingo and that
the player should most likely exchange tiles, but may choose to spend
several minutes on the rack AEINST? when an opportunity for a
TWS-TWS
exists on the board, as there are 237 possible eight-letter words that
could be formed, yielding a score of at least 104 for the play (3 x 3
x 6 + 50).
Timer – See
Chess
Clock.
Total Spread – See
Cumulative Spread.
Tracking – Players are allowed to track
which tiles have been played in order to determine which tiles are
still in play. Most player score sheets have a preprinted tile
frequency distribution of the 100 tiles in the game printed on the
score sheet so that tiles may be crossed off as played. When no tiles
remain in the bag, a player who has tracked correctly will know what
tiles her opponent has on his rack.
Tracking Sheet – Although usually
combined with the Score Sheet, players may choose to use a separate
preprinted tile frequency distribution sheet for
tracking purposes.
Trading Tiles – See
Exchanging Tiles.
Triple-Triple (TWS-TWS) – A play that
spans two Triple Word Score squares, and earns 9 times the value of
the word played (3 x 3, or tripled twice).
Turn Score – The score for a single
turn played in a game. See Cumulative Score.
Turnover – Playing as many tiles as
possible in order to draw as many tiles as possible. A player may
turnover tiles in order maximize the chance of drawing
power tiles or
to hasten the end of a game when the player has a considerable lead
(preventing the opponent from catching up).
Word Judge
– The person at a tournament who takes takes the
Challenge Slip from a player who called
a challenge and verifies the word(s) on the slip against the word
source. See Challenge,
Challenge Slip, OTCWL.
