SOWPODS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
SOWPODS is the list used in tournament Scrabble in all English-speaking countries[1] except the USA, Canada, Thailand and Israel[2], which use the American Tournament Word List or TWL. SOWPODS, officially known as OSWI, is comprised of words from two official dictionaries -- Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (OSPD, derived from the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary and four other college dictionaries), and Official Scrabble Words (OSW, derived from the Chambers Dictionary). The name is an anagram of the two acronyms.[3]
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[edit] History
In 1980 in the United Kingdom, the Chambers dictionary[4] replaced the Shorter Oxford dictionary as the official choice for arbitration of the British National Scrabble Championship. In 1988 for the first time a single list of all the valid words, without the ambiguity of discussing conjugations, declensions and plurals was published. This would come to be known as OSW. However the World Scrabble Championship used the American dictionary the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (OSPD). In 2002 for the first time a list was published containing the words from OSW and OSPD allowing the British players to practise using the North American words.
[edit] Suggested advantages
- SOWPODS provides a single list of words in alphabetical order. It is technically a word list and not a dictionary because it does not provide any definitions; nor does it provide any explanations of plurals or conjugations, it simply lists all the valid words.
- SOWPODS represents an effort to combine all the vocabulary from all the English speaking countries in the world. Therefore SOWPODS can be used in any English speaking country without the fear that they won't be able to play words they use in everyday life. This lessens the need for countries to have their own English Scrabble dictionary.
- Words that are ten-letters long or longer are very rarely played; the plurals, past and present tenses of all the nine-letter words are included to guard against this.
[edit] Suggested disadvantages
- The alphabetical listing of words can prove confusing. For example MATS is almost 100 entries after MAT.
- While SOWPODS combines as many English speaking communities as it can, people often find themselves using vocabulary they would never use in real life. For example there are words taken from African countries where French and Arabic influences the written language.
- SOWPODS is not a dictionary. To look up the meanings of words the player must look elsewhere.
- There is ambiguity over words longer than nine letters. Officially the Chambers Dictionary 8th edition and Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 10th edition are the sources of words up to 15 letters. However it has been noted that some tournament directors do not carry both of these volumes to tournaments. Even if the dictionaries are present, it is up to the adjudicator to decide which conjugations and declensions are valid[5].
[edit] Word count
SOWPODS includes some 216553 words[6], including:
- 121 two-letter words
- 1229 three-letter words
- 5155 four-letter words
- 11812 five-letter words
- 20964 six-letter words
- 30229 seven-letter words
- 39043 eight letter-words
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Sowpods Dictionary Online SOWPODS dictionary. You can also download the entire SOWPODS word list for free.