Scrabble Adds New Words

Scrabble Dictionary Adds Long-Awaited New Words

'OK is now OK. So is 'yowza'

By Newser Editors and Wire Services

The word yowza appears in the new edition of Merriam Webster's "Official Scrabble Players Dictionary," in New York, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018. It is among more than 300 additions in the latest edition.   (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Scrabble players, time to rethink your game because 300 new words are coming your way, including some long-awaited gems: OK and ew, to name a few.


Merriam-Webster released the sixth edition of "The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary" on Monday, four years after the last freshening up. The company, at the behest of Scrabble owner Hasbro Inc., left out one possibility—RBI—after consulting competitive players who thought it potentially too contentious. There was a remote case to be made since RBI has morphed into an actual word, pronounced rib-ee. But that's OK because, "OK." "OK is something Scrabble players have been waiting for, for a long time," says lexicographer Peter Sokolowski, editor at large at Merriam-Webster. "Basically two- and three-letter words are the lifeblood of the game."

There's more good news in qapik—a unit of currency in Azerbaijan— adding to an arsenal of 20 playable words beginning with q that don't need a u. "Every time there's a word with q and no u, it's a big deal," Sokolowski tells the AP. "Most of these are obscure." There are some sweet scorers now eligible for play, including bizjet—a small plane used for business and some magical vowel dumps, such as arancini, those Italian balls of cooked rice. Yowza is now in play, along with a word some might have thought was already allowed: zen. Other newcomers Sokolowski shared are aquafaba, beatdown, zomboid, twerk, sheeple, wayback, bokeh, botnet, emoji, facepalm, frowny, hivemind, puggle, and nubber.