Dictionary Committee 2014 Report

The Dictionary Committee has prepared the following contribution to NASPA's 2014 collection of reports on committee activity.

In working on the update of the Official Tournament and Club Word List (OWL3) and the Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary (OSPD5) for the past couple of years our committee has been able to identify thousands of new words that are being added to these official lexicons. Many of these new words were identified in two source dictionaries, Oxford College Dictionary, 2nd edition and Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd edition. These two sources most closely matched the level of coverage in the earlier sources used for compiling our previous official lists.

Additionally, the editors at Merriam-Webster have added new rules-acceptable words from their working files that are being included in their Collegiate Dictionary and Learner's Dictionary. The result of all this is that the OWL3 will provide Scrabble Crossword Game players a great variety of valid English language words for use in competitive club and tournament play.

Since the process for locating, authenticating, compiling, proofreading, and publishing the word lists for the current update was somewhat more tightly monitored and controlled this time than with earlier updates the final list of words will not be publicly known until the official release at this year's National SCRABBLE Championship in Buffalo, New York in August. Hopefully, there will be few (if any) errors that will need to be corrected before the OWL3 becomes the official lexicon for use in clubs and tournaments in December of 2014.

In addition to the new words from the source dictionaries listed above we had hoped to gather longer words (10 to 15 letters in length) from all of the earlier source dictionaries for inclusion into the OWL3. However, we only were able to do a small portion of this type searching for the OWL3 and hope to complete more of that work during the next update. Despite this, a small number of missed shorter words from the earliest sources were identified and submitted for inclusion into the OWL3.

The members of the Dictionary Committee who worked on the current update are listed on the NASPA website at: Dictionary Committee

Most of these committee members did many hours of work on the current update. As you have a chance to do so please express your appreciation to these Dictionary Committee members.

Bottom line is this - I can almost hear the inimitable Steve Pfeiffer saying in his wonderful New York accent, "They found a lotta new words - we're gonna get to play a lotta new words!"

Here's hoping that you do indeed have a lot of fun playing the new words.

Jim Pate, Chair