in North America recognizes five
words which, if spelled over two triple-word score squares, and
with a premium-scoring tile on the double-letter score square,
will award the player 392 points on a single play. These five
words are: OXAZEPAM, BEZIQUES, CAZIQUES, MEZQUITS, and MEZQUITE.
John Chew says that OXYPHENBUTAZONE is the
highest-scoring word known under American tournament Scrabble©
rules (OSPD+MWCD). It can score 1778 under suitably contrived
circumstances listed and credited in the Scrabble© FAQ. An
example of that play can be seen at our
web site
here. The
highest-scoring opening plays are MUZJIKS (128) in OSPD
and QUARTZY (126) or SQUEEZY (126) in OSW.
Bruce D. Wilner says if we include eight-letter
"bingos" that use all seven letters on one's rack plus
a letter already on the board, then WHIZBANG, QUETZALS,
and HIGHJACK score an incredible 374 points for a single
play if the highest-point tile is on a light blue square and
both the first and last letters are on red squares. QUIXOTIC
and MUSQUASH are right behind, scoring 356 and 338,
respectively.
According to James Bartlett, the highest scoring word is QUARTZY,
which will score 164 points if played across a red triple-word
square with the Z on a light blue double-letter square. It will
score 162 points if played across two pink double-word squares
with the Q and the Y on those squares. BEZIQUE and CAZIQUE
are next with a possible 161 points. All three words score an
extra 50 points for having seven letters and therefore emptying
the letter rack in one go.
Other words yielding high scores are ZYXOMMA (which is
not in OSPD) and POPQUIZ.
QI (a life force in Chinese medicine) appears in Chambers.
Barry Harridge says, "Its introduction threw the Scrabble©
world into a tailspin, with some players arguing that the Q
should no longer be worth 10 points." Bruce D. Wilner says,
"Not only do they allow QI in the U.K., they also allow ZO
(a type of hornless cattle). This makes playing U. K. Scrabble©
much less of a strategic challenge than U. S. Scrabble©, which
features a host of "blocking tiles," i.e., tiles that
cannot form 2-letter words and effectively block off
opportunities for your opponent.
ETAERIO (an aggregate or cluster fruit such as the
raspberry) is the most likely seven letter word to appear on a
Scrabble© rack [Stuart Kidd].
John Chew reports the plural ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACETATES
is the longest word in his electronic Scrabble© lexicon.
(However, he did not explain where on the Scrabble© board the
word fits!)
The Q without U words accepted in the U. S. Scrabble© list
are: QAT, QAID, QOPH, FAQIR, QANAT, TRANQ, QINDAR, QINTAR,
QWERTY, SHEQEL, QINDARKA, and SHEQALIM (alternate
plural of SHEQEL). The combined US/UK list (SOWPODS) adds (from
Chambers Dictionary), with their plurals: BUQSHA, BURQA,
INQILAB, MBAQANGA, MUQADDAM, QABALAH, QADI, QAIMAQAM, QALAMDAN,
QASIDA, QI, QIBLA, QIGONG, QINGHAOSU, QIS, QIVIUT, QWERTIES,
QWERTYS, SUQ, TALAQ, TRANQ, TSADDIQIM, TSADDIQ, TZADDIQIM,
TZADDIQ, UMIAQ, WAQF, and YAQONA [Stuart Kidd].
[Some words containing Q and U but not the QU sequence are QIVIUT,
UMIAQ, and BUQSHA.]
The Pixie Pit©
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