Scrabble Word of the Day -- DIMER

This is another little-known word that can actually be useful. While not a frequently-played word, "DIM" is obviously an easy word for anyone to play, and it's not a stretch for "DIME" to be played from there.

If "DIME" is played in one direction (i.e., DIM is horizontal and some plays a word ending with E down, turning DIM to DIME), you can always add an R to head yet another word in another direction.

More than that, though, DIMER is a word you can add to further with any of the following words:

DIMERIC
DIMERISM
DIMERIZE
DIMERIZED
DIMERIZING
DIMERIZES
DIMEROUS

Scrabble Word of the Day -- ZINC

Ok ... enough all ready with the "Z" words. I know. But this is an important one to actively keep in mind when playing Scrabble. Why?

Because one of the easiest words for a person to play with the Z tile is "ZIN" -- and that leaves you a great spot for "ZINC". But that's not the only reason to know ZINC.

Once ZINC is on the board, you'll want to know just how much you can still do with it. Here are all the ways you can add to ZINC:

ZINCED
ZINCING
ZINCS

or

ZINCKED
ZINCKING
ZINCS (not "zincks")

ALSO

ZINCATE
ZINCITE

ZINCIC
ZINCIFY

ZINCOID
ZINCOUS
ZINCY

So ... any questions? ZINC is a word to know, and so are all its additions.

A Cardinal Scrabble Rule

Tonight I broke a cardinal Scrabble rule and deserved to lose, even though I squeezed out a win.

Among my tiles, I had the letters Z I P and, on seeing the chance to use these on a double word score by playing the P on YA for "YAP", I went ahead and played, scoring 36 points.

Stupid me -- my opponent then played LIP at the top of the board with the P playing in two directions on the triple-word score. The letters "OOH" had been below the triple, so he played POOH and LIP. Had I played ZIP up top, I'd have scored 69 points without a BINGO.

This takes us back to the old rule that, once you have a good play ... LOOK FOR A BETTER ONE. You don't have to spend forever looking for extra plays, especially when under a time limit. But take a look around and hopefully you won't lose the 33 points that I did in a single turn!

Scrabble Word of the Day -- HET

If you're a Scrabble zealot, you probably have all of the possible 3-letter words memorized. If not, here's one I ran into the other day (since I'm still learning them).

There was actually an opportunity to use HET in one spot, and it would have done me a lot of good to do so, but I later found that both my opponent and I wanted to look it up after the game to see if it was legit. It is. It's a variation of "HETH" -- a Hebrew letter.

The beauty of HET, of course, is that the words "HE" and "ET" are both frequently used in a Scrabble game, so when you see them, you know that you can easily add to them while building a new word in another direction.

Scrabble Word of the Day -- ZZZ

Today's word of the day is another new one I found in the 4th edition of the recreational dictionary ... so potentially this will soon be available for club and tournament use as well. The word is "ZZZ" -- as in the noise a cartoon makes when he's sleeping.

This one isn't nearly so useful as yesterday's word, "ZA," because it requires the use of the Z tile as well as both blanks, and I can't see anyone in their right mind using it unless it's toward the end of the game and they want to double- or triple-word the "Z". Otherwise, who would waste the blanks on a non-BINGO?

But when it comes to Scrabble, any extra words you know gives you a little more ammo to win.

First New Word -- ZA

If you're a Scrabble enthusiast -- and by that, I mean someone whose a member of the National Scrabble Association -- then you know that the Scrabble dictionary sold in bookstores is for recreational use only. But you also know that this dictionary has similarities to the official one used for clubs and tournaments.

While we're waiting for the 2nd edition of the official dictionary to come out, you might have noticed that they finally came out with a 4th edition of the recreational dictionary. And one of the exciting prospects in this dictionary is the new word "ZA" that's been added. (Short for "pizza".)

If this goes into the new, official dictionary, it'll be another powerful tool of the trade, because it's going to open up new uses of the Z tile. (I've already seen a number of times when I could've used that in the last couple weeks.)

Keep your eyes peeled for ZA when the new official dictionary arrives and surprise your opponent with that as a move. (And if you get challenged, so much the better!) Just don't use it before the new dictionary is adopted for use!

Welcome to Scrabble Babble

If you're into Scrabble, whether you're an expert or beginner, I hope you'll find this the blog you want to visit every day.

I've been playing Scrabble on my own for a number of years, but have just started attending a club and am looking forward to my first tournament. So I'm not going to sit here and make myself out to be an expert -- in fact, I haven't got a ranking right now at all.

BUT ... I understand the theories and tricks to the game, and this blog will talk about great moves I see in club and tournament settings; it'll mention things going on in the world of Scrabble; and most of all ... it'll provide plenty of new words and ways you can use them to your advantage in your next game.

So stop on by often. I'll try to get up a new word most weekdays, and other commentary as it comes along.