Talk:Collins Scrabble Words

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I hope someone will add/correct the info on this page. Stewart Holden was the one who sent me the article on how the ABSP got started (which obviously contains information about the birth of SOWPODS). Some supporting evidence for the advs and disadvs would be more than welcome. Basically that's stuff I've got from reading forums, but there must be discussion about it somewhere.

Let's not forget a TWL or OSPD page. Mglovesfun 02:25, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Contradictions

There seem to be two obvious contradictions in this article. Firtly, the first paragraph states that CSW is effectively the full SOWPODS list, whereas the second paragraph states that CSW is just one of two source dictionaries which make up the list. Please discuss - and unless anyone objects, I will edit the article to simply say that CSW is effectively the SOWPODS list, which I believe to be true.

Secondly, the first paragraph states that there is no actual list produced called SOWPODS. Whilst there may not be an actual publication called SOWPODS, there is a link to the SOWPODS word list on isc.com in this article, which contradicts the statement that there is no such list. Please discuss - if there are no objections I will remove the statement that there is no actual list called SOWPODS, which appears to be incorrect. BishopOdo (talk) 10:49, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

I have make some adjustments. I hope it is clearer now. HumphreyW (talk) 13:48, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Humphry - that has cleared it up. BishopOdo (talk) 15:06, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Sowpods

Is the word "sowpods" in SOWPODS? Zargulon (talk) 00:32, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

SOWPODS or Collins

There appears to be some confusion in the Scrabble articles as to whether SOWPODS is the official word list for the World Scrabble Championships. The Scrabble article says that the Tournament and Club Word list is the right one, and that this is based on OWL2 and entries from the Chambers and Collins dictionaries.

There is further confusion in that I own a Collins Scrabble dictionary (with another title), which purports to be the official reference, which includes definitions for words of (I believe) 10 letters or under.

I don't know enough to make the changes to the articles themselves, but I hope there is someone out there who does. A quick internet search did not provide me with the answers.

Zfishwiki 23:43, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

I'm with Zfishwiki. A quick check on Amazon shows books entitled Collins Scrabble Words, Collins Scrabble Dictionary, Collins Scrabble Lists, Collins Official Scrabble Dictionary and Collins Tournament and Club Word List. What are these books? Which of them have 'official' status, and what is 'official' status anyway? Scaramouche (talk) 21:30, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Impossible words

Perhaps a reference to the words BEZZAZZ, BEZZAZZES, PAZZAZZ, PAZZAZZES, PIZZAZZ, PIZZAZZES, PIZZAZZY, RAZZAMATAZZ, RAZZAMATAZZES, RAZZMATAZZ and RAZZMATAZZES which are in SOWPODS list but are impossible to make in English scrabble? (4 zeds - 3 is the most possible if both blanks are used) 81.79.16.2 (talk) 17:18, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

@Martin S Taylor 94.196.174.61 (talk) 02:20, 3 September 2023 (UTC)

I don't know that this would be pertinent to this article. Other word sources such as OSPD and OWL also include "impossible" words. PIZZAZZ was in the original printing of OSPD but was removed without explanation as part of a "correction". However, it reappeared in later editions. The words appear in standard dictionaries and meet the criteria specified in the rules so there isn't really a valid reason to exclude them. Note there are games with different letter distributions for which this could be used as a source, such as "Super Scrabble". Also, though not likely now that plastic tiles are standard, if a non-blank tile is played as a blank it stays on the board if not caught before the next turn. Gr8white (talk) 18:45, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

OSW, when it was based on Chambers, specifically stated that it was intended not just for Scrabble, but also as a possible (though unofficial) reference for other games, too. For this reason it included some words with accents and other characters which cannot be made using a Scrabble set, and specifically noted that these words are not allowed in Scrabble. Consquently it was remarkably odd that words such as PIZZAZZ, which are undeniably legitimate for Scrabble, were omitted from OSW. Scaramouche (talk) 21:35, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

There are other unmakable words too, like KNICKKNACKS (one K, two blanks). 86.159.192.146 (talk) 22:53, 28 August 2012 (UTC)

Coining of term

The term SOWPODS was coined by Nick Ballard, who published a Scrabble-oriented newsletter Medleys. That would probably be useful info to add to the article but I don't have a source to cite other than personal knowledge (both from Medleys and acquaintance with Nick). Unfortunately I threw out my collection of Medleys some time ago. Gr8white (talk) 18:38, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Acronym?

Is SOWPODS an acronym? If not why is it in full caps? If so why are the actual words never used within this article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.28.76.65 (talk) 20:01, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

It's formed from the amalgamation of the letters forming the acronyms OSW and OSPD. This is mentioned in the article. Scaramouche (talk) 21:28, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

OSW isn't expanded either here or in the linked Chambers article. Is it Official Scrabble Words? You mentioned above "when it was based on Chambers"--should it have either its own article or a section in the Chambers article? Not R (talk) 03:48, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

I have added a brief paragraph about the OSW to the Chambers page. HumphreyW (talk) 06:23, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Deadlink

The first reference (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rjackman/) is a deadlink - and doesn't even look like an original source. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.254.212.36 (talk) 10:25, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

Updated. Thanks ~~ Tyow1 (talk) 03:02, 29 June 2025 (UTC)

Word Counts

I'm wanting to update the counts of the words per length. But I can only find sources for the counts up to 9: https://scrabguys.home.blog/wordlists/. For the rest, I could easily compute it myself, but I have a vague understanding that that wouldn't be the proper route for Wikipedia. Any ideas? Tyow1 (talk) 02:51, 29 June 2025 (UTC)