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This page describes the upcoming new edition of the Collins word list, and is part of our introduction to Collins (SOWPODS) in North America.
CSW12 is the next edition of the Collins word list, and will take effect worldwide on January 1st 2012. It will replace the current list, which has been the official source since Jan 1st 2007, and forms the basis for the rest of the Collins sections of the NASPA wiki.
It is anticipated that all CSW tournaments, including those in North America, will use the new wordlist as soon as it is adopted.
Currently, the next edition of OWL (OWL3) is not anticipated until 2014. How this will impact CSW12 (since CSW by definition contains OWL) is not yet known.
For clarity, we will refer to the current CSW list on this page as CSW07.
The number of additions is not as large as some previous lexicon editions, totaling 1477 [1] for 2-8 letter words, and 2809 in total, representing an increase of just over 1%.
There are also 396 deletions (140 2-8 letters), resulting from changes in the source dictionary, corrections, or criteria for inclusion. An important point to note is that no OWL2 words are deleted.
The numbers of additions and deletions are summarized in the following table:
| Length | CSW07 | CSW12 additions | CSW07 deletions | Total in CSW12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 124 | 0 | 0 | 124 |
| 3 | 1292 | 19 | 1 | 1310 |
| 4 | 5454 | 76 | 4 | 5526 |
| 5 | 12478 | 186 | 18 | 12646 |
| 6 | 22157 | 279 | 26 | 22410 |
| 7 | 32909 | 406 | 41 | 33274 |
| 8 | 40161 | 511 | 50 | 40622 |
| Total 2-8 | 114575 | 1477 | 140 | 115912 |
| 9 | 40727 | 546 | 63 | 41210 |
| 10 | 35529 | 362 | 64 | 35827 |
| 11 | 27892 | 200 | 54 | 28038 |
| 12 | 20297 | 107 | 36 | 20368 |
| 13 | 13857 | 63 | 24 | 13896 |
| 14 | 9116 | 35 | 10 | 9141 |
| 15 | 5757 | 19 | 5 | 5771 |
| Total | 267750 | 2809 | 396 | 270163 |
As is always the case, only a small fraction of the words are needed to play a good game.
Note also that there are no new 2 letter words, and none are deleted.
A small sampling of useful or fun new words (definitions adapted from Zyzzyva 2.1.5) is
| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| QIN -s | a Chinese zither with silken strings, also GUQIN |
| FIQH -s | an expansion of Sharia Islamic law |
| VLOG -s | a video blog |
| XRAY -s | a code word for the letter X in international radio communication |
| BOOAI -s | a remote rural place, also BOOHAI, BOOAY |
| FILII | pl. FILIUS (Latin), a son |
| GRRRL -s | as in riot grrrl, a young woman who plays or follows this style of punk rock, also GRRL |
| HYPHY | a style of hip-hop music from the San Francisco Bay Area [HYPHIES] |
| BASEEJ | Iranian vigilantes who enforce strict Islamic behavior and dress code, especially on women, also BASIJ |
| TZADDI -kqs | the 18th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, also SADHE, SADE |
| ENQUEUE -ds | to add to a list of data processing tasks awaiting processing in a buffer |
| LOANEES | pl. LOANEE, a person who receives a loan, or, a sportsperson loaned from one organization to another |
| NGARARA -s | a New Zealand lizard |
| NOILIER | NOILY, pertaining to a noil, a kind of short fiber |
| NOTAIRE -s | in France, a public official authorized to attest and certify certain legal documents, etc. |
| OATIEST | OATY, like oats |
| ENARGITE -s | a minor copper ore, dark-grey crystalline copper arsenic sulphide |
| FACEBOOK -s | to look for someone's profile on Facebook |
| LITREAGE -s | volume in liters |
| QINTARKA | pl. QINTAR, a monetary unit of Albania |
| REALTONE -s | a ringtone that closely resembles an original sound recording |
| UILLEANN | as in uilleann pipes, Irish bagpipes |
| CELECOXIB -s | an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat arthritis |
| IRUKANDJI -s | a venomous Australian jellyfish |
| TIKTAALIK -s | an extinct sarcopterygian (lobe-finned) fish genus from the late Devonian period |
| ZWANZIGER -s | an old Australian silver coin, equivalent to twenty kreutzers |
| LAMESTREAM -s | the traditional media, such as newspapers, television and radio |
| WHATABOUTERY | of two communities in conflict, the practice of repeatedly blaming the other side, and referring to the past [WHATABOUTERIES] |
Various other modern words, such as computer terms like WIKI, INBOX, README, DARKNET, ROOTKIT, PERMALINK, KEYLOGGING, CROWDSOURCING, and so on, also appear, and there is more consistent treatment of some contentious words from CSW07, such as those of Maori origin. Some well-known former phoneys, such as COSTINGS, also make an appearance.
The full list of new 3s is:
ALU -ms AME -ns ANS -a ATS AWK -s ERM GAK -s GAW -dkps GER -emst ING -os MEH OIS PEL -aeflst QIN -s RAV -es SOZ SUG -hos TIK -aeis UMS
New short words containing JQXZ are:
GOJI -s BASIJ JAFFA -s JAMON JIBBA -hs JUVIE -s
QIN -s FIQH -s GUQIN -s
FLOX XRAY -s BOXTY -ies CAPEX -es COXIB -s INBOX -es OXIES
SOZ RONZ ZARI -s CEZVE -s LEEZE
New vowel and consonant dumps are:
AIDA -s ALOO -fs AUAS BOOAI -s BEEDIE -s LOANEE -s OATIER TOOLIE -s WOOHOO DEQUEUE -ds ENQUEUE -ds ANIRIDIA -s AUTOSAVE -ds BOOGALOO -s EQUATIVE FEIJOADA -s HONOUREE -s IOPANOIC KALOOKIE -s KOEKOEAS
GRRL -s GRRRL -s HYPHY -ies SCHELLY -ies SKRONKS SKYLESS SPYCAMS FLYSPRAY -s
New high probability bingos are:
ATTONED FANSITE -s LOANEES NANITES NOTAIRE -s NOILIER OATIEST ENARGITE -s GAITERED LIONHEAD -s LITREAGE -s LOUNGIER NANOWIRE -s NOILIEST NOTAIRES PINOTAGE -s REALTONE -s RETINOIC SLANTIER
Short words deleted from CSW07 are:
YOS FIFI FOHS OHOS WASM CHONS CIAOS EPROM FREON GRENZ HEROE NICKY ODSOS PHOHS PURIM RETES RIVOS ROMAS SWONE TABIS TAHOU TOHOS WASMS
The overall effect on the game is likely to be minimal, the most significant thing being simply adjusting to the more common newly allowed plays, and occasional deletions. QIN will likely be played a lot, but if and how much it impacts strategy is not really known yet.
For further details, an excellent set of documents introducing the new words, giving such information as words that newly take -S, the deletions, is available on the WESPA website. These do not differentiate between OWL2 and CSW, but of course in this case that does not matter, since all words referred to are new to CSW. The website also gives information on where to buy the new lexicon in book form.
The new lexicon is available in Zyzzyva, which can be configured to supply all three of OWL2, CSW07, and CSW12, with the ability to switch between the lexicons. There are also plans to add CSW12 to Quackle.
[1] http://www.wespa.org quotes different numbers (1532 and 149). It is not clear why. The numbers on this page are derived from Zyzzyva 2.1.5, which is assumed correct.
Comments concerning this page may be directed to Nick Ball.
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