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Agreed. However, my inner philistine says that it is the Official Scrabble Dictionary that is the dictionary of choice. Every word and every spelling listed but
by Theodores 12y ago
Agreed. However, my inner philistine says that it is the Official Scrabble Dictionary that is the dictionary of choice. Every word and every spelling listed but with no meanings, explanations, etymology or anything else given.
In my days of being competent at Scrabble there were so many words that our Scrabble playing group knew as legitimate words yet we had no idea at all what they meant. Half of the two letter words were like that and anything else with unusual 'Q, J and Z combinations'.
I like using a word beyond my normal inner-dictionary that is the right one, in the right place. There is a feeling that 'yes! I used that word...!'. Such words could have been heard on Radio 4 and never really made it to the inner-dictionary, yet, one day, the need arises for that word and it fits perfectly. It is so nice when that happens.
- chrisfarms 12y agoWe always play a scrabble rule where you can challenge someone to give a definition of the word they "claim" is real ... and if the definition is not in the chosen dictionary, then they are not allowed it ... even if it's a real word.
- blt 12y agoThat is the standard way for serious players, and it has to be an official Scrabble dictionary. If it's not real you loser your turn. If it is real the challenger loses his turn. The game is boring without challenges.
- taejo 12y agoRead the comment you're responding to again, carefully.
- thathonkey 12y agoThat's a pretty lame rule if I may say so myself. Kinda of violates the whole spirit of the game. You have to use real words that you know how to spell. Requiring a definition, especially one that matches some chosen dictionary, opens up a lot of weird challenge problems. Definitions are much more fluid than spelling (although spellings can change over time as well). Spelling and whether or not a word is "real" tend to be much more cut and dry.
- aninhumer 12y ago>Kinda of violates the whole spirit of the game. I would say the spirit of the game is a competition based on vocabulary. Surely memorising character sequences with no understanding is completely against that ideal? I agree however, that requiring an exact definition would be a bad way to do it. The point is to understand, not to memorise, so they should only need to give an approximate definition. For casual games, I think agreement of the players is fine, and for competitive play, you can have a judge to decide if their definition is close enough.
- thathonkey 12y agoPretty sure they don't check for definition knowledge in competitive play though? Probably because it is so problematic.
- fmoralesc 12y agoNot a big worry. My guess is for unusual words, meaning variance is pretty low because their use (what fixes the meaning) is low too. If you find out the meaning the player attaches to the word doesn't match the dictionary, you can be pretty much certain he is trying to bullshit it (assuming the rule is in effect, it wouldn't be a problem under the usual rules). I think the rule just adds some more challenge to the game.
- nollidge 12y ago> I like using a word beyond my normal inner-dictionary that is the right one, in the right place. This is often referred to as le mot juste.