Official Scrabble Dictionary (no more cheating :))

What I like about the "Official Scrabbles Player Dictionary" is that it offers the definitions to the words. Older editions have just the 'Official' words - with no definitions.
In our home we play Scrabble by different rules - our rules. Every player has their own Offical Scrabble Players Dictionary. You are allowed to use the dictionary to create words BEFORE your turn. This way the kids/adults increase their 'word power' especially when they get stuck with difficult combinations of word tiles. Our house Scrabble rule is: if you create a word using the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary you have to read the definition to everyone during your turn.
How I have influenced others in using the Offical Scrabble Players Dictionary?
I made friends in India when I traveled there 4 years ago. I met this woman who was having her children educated in an English spoken school. I happen to have brought with me, mini scrabble games, and I gave one to her family. She emailed me after my return to the United States to let me know how much fun thier family (especially her husband and oldest daughter) had with the game - and the bonding it was creating within thier family unit. Since I knew the mother wanted her children to become fluent in English, I decided that next time that my husband flew over to India, I would have him bring a copy of "The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary" and give it to them. Needless to say my India friends - loved it, and also loved the idea of how our family plays Scrabble using the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary here in the United States!!
I have also purchased an Official Scrabble Players Dictionary for my neighbors who we play with, using our rules, which in turn now they play by these rules with their own two children.
This year I purchased the Scrabble game and Official Scrabble Players Dictionary for my daughter, Kimberly, as a Christmas present (she has moved out, and misses our tradition). I also recently purchased another Official Players Dictionary to give to my sister-in-law, Mary, as a 'hostess gift' at the family Christmas party. The reason being - I heard that my sister-in-law wins every game of Scrabble, and my husband told me she would be a challenge to me. After asking a few questions about how she played, I found out that she uses "Medical Terminology" -- which according to the "Official Scrabble Players Dictionary", most of those words are 'invalid' (aka 'cheating'). SOoooo...by giving Mary this dictionary I can then inform all her siblings that she might have won Scrabble games using 'invalid' words, and that there may be reasons for many re-matches that may have to be played - maybe then I may challenge her to a game!! :)
I can't really say there is anything I dislike about the dictionary, except that a newer edition may be in order.
I chose to buy and share the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary to encourage 'word power' and to foster relationships and communication with family and friends.

Cheryl Nobrega
Massachusetts

A great asset to the Delux Scrabble game I got for gift

I liked it because it was a good version ,my wife and I started playing a lot of scrabble lately, she would always come up with words that you just new she made up, but after recieving the official scrabble dictionary the games we play only last a fraction of the time and don't always have a review of the word chosen. The book is the law!

The Official Scrabble Reference Dictionary

This is the book devout Scrabble players simply CANNOT survive without. Although there are words in the English language that are not included in this book----still there has to be rules and this book settles the dispute-----not in there----can't play it----period. Yet I am perplexed as to why the fabric Qiana did not make it into this edition. (not many words we can use a "Q" without the letter "U".)----will be eagerly awaiting the nexr edition, untill then, this one will do quite nicely.

More Fun, But Less Words

I like having the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary. It makes me feel like I'm playing the game the way it was meant to be played. Before I bought this dictionary, I used Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1987). However, there are some drawbacks. The Official Scrabble Dictionary has a lot less words than the unabridged dictionary. It doesn't let you use the word "en," as in the letter "n," for example. Also, I think the official dictionary doesn't contain any words longer than eight letters, even though you are allowed to make words that are longer than eight letters if you build off of another word.

Not quite what I expected

My family and I enjoy playing Scrabble, and we had one small dictionary that we were using as our definitive source for our word choices. Since it seemed to lack some common words in use, I decided to search for a Scrabble dictionary, and hit on the official Scrabble dictionary! Oh, short lived joy!

It appears to me, and my family agrees, that the official dictionary has more word choices in it than is permissible under the rules of the original game. It also lists words that are eight letters in length or less. So if someone spelled, "all" and you had enough letters to put down "igator", you wouldn’t find "alligator" in the dictionary. Seems rather odd, but you do find "oy", "ow" and a host of other one and two letters words.

So now my rule is when in doubt, put down two letters. Someone may, or may not challenge the word, but odds are that it will be found in the dictionary.