Scrabble adds more than 500 new words to its official dictionary

In the last year or two, the Scrabble dictionary has been scrubbed of more than 200 racial, ethnic and otherwise offensive words despite their presence in some other dictionaries.

Brisbane, Australia - April 26, 2014: Scrabble brand crossword game. Copyright 2006 by Mattel, Inc. Scrabble is a registered trademark of J.W. Spear and Sons. Ltd. Pic: iStock
Image: Pic: iStock
Why you can trust Sky News

This might spark an interesting 'convo' - Scrabble has added more than 500 new playable words to its official dictionary.

Stan, sitch, zedonk, bae and the shortened version of conversation have all made it into the Scrabble lexicon, taking the total number of point-scoring words to well over 100,000.

Out this month, the latest additions will feature in the 17th edition of The Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary, which features all the eligible two to eight letters words that can be played in the board game.

The book was last updated in 2018 through a long-standing partnership between Hasbro and Merriam-Webster.

The new words include some trademarks that have gone generic such as dumpster, and some shortened words like guac, inspo and adorbs.

More verb variations have also made the cut, such as adulted, adulting, verbed, verbing, atted and atting (as in don't at me, bro).

Fauxhawk, a haircut similar to a Mohawk, is potentially the highest scoring newbie, due to its inclusion of high point-scoring letters x and k.

More from Ents & Arts

Compound words are on the rise with deadname, pageview and fintech added to the dictionary.

So are the "uns", such as unfollow, unsub and unmute.

They may sound familiar but they were never Scrabble official, at least when it comes to the game's branded dictionary.

Other new Scrabble words

  • Yeehaw
  • Allyship
  • Babymoon
  • Subtweet
  • Vibing
  • Welp
  • Thingie
  • Slushee
  • Hygge
  • Zonkey
  • Zoomer
  • Jedi
  • Vax

The official rules of Scrabble do allow words from any dictionary.

In the last year or two, the official dictionary has scrubbed more than 200 racial, ethnic and otherwise offensive words despite their presence in some other dictionaries.

The move has prompted furious debate among tournament players.

Supporters of the clean-up called it long overdue, while others argued that the words, however heinous in definition, should remain playable so long as points are to be had.