NSWL2020

The NASPA School Word List (2020 edition), NSWL2020, was edited by the NASPA Dictionary Committee in 2020 and becomes effective on January 6, 2021. It replaces NSWL2018.

Like its predecessors, it consists of those words that are acceptable in the regular NASPA Word List (NWL) that are considered appropriate for school use.

Availability

NASPA members may download the word list and related files through Member Services in the following format:

NSWL2020 (text)

All words found in the NASPA School Word List (2020 edition), in a text file, final version dated 2020-10-15

It will be available to NASPA members for electronic study and tournament adjudication purposes in the NASPA Zyzzyva program, starting with version 3.2.3.

School SCRABBLE competitors may apply for a complimentary season membership.

Content

This edition deletes 42 words - all 9 letters or longer in length - from the NSWL:

• 28 words are now classified as offensive slurs and have also been removed from the NWL.
• 14 offensive words are now considered inappropriate for school play.

A complete list of the deleted words is available for our adult members in Member Services.

To view a list of differences between specific editions of NSWL and NWL, use Zyzzyva to search for words that are in one lexicon but not the other. There are 591 words that are in NWL2020 but not in NSWL2020; all words in NSWL2020 are in NWL2020.