SOWPODS

SOWPODS is a term used to refer to the word list used in tournament Scrabble in most countries [ [http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rjackman/ The SOWPODS Scrabble site] ] except the USA, Thailand and Canada. The term SOWPODS is derived from the anagram of the two acronyms "OSPD" and "OSW", these being the original two official dictionaries used in various parts of the world at the time. Although the two source dictionaries have now changed their respective titles the term SOWPODS is still used by tournament players to refer to the combination of the two sources. There is no actual list produced called SOWPODS, although the current Collins Scrabble Words, or CSW, is effectively the full SOWPODS list.

Currently the two source dictionaries making up the combined list known as SOWPODS are the British "Collins Scrabble Words" published in 2007 derived from the "Collins English Dictionary", and the American "Official Tournament and Club Word List", or TWL, published in 2006 derived from the "Merriam-Webster's Dictionary" and four other collegiate dictionaries.

History

In 1980 in the United Kingdom, the "Chambers Dictionary" [ [http://www.absp.org.uk/publications/books.html#TCD ABSP website] ] replaced the "Shorter Oxford Dictionary" as the official choice for arbitration of the British National Scrabble Championship. In 1988 for the first time a single list of all the valid words, without the ambiguity of discussing conjugations, declensions and plurals was published under the title Official Scrabble Words from Chambers (this would come to be known as OSW). North American Scrabble was using the OSPD, hence when the first World Scrabble Championship took place in 1991 words from either word source were allowed.

Over the following years debate raged in the competitive Scrabble community over the desirability of a combined word source, which came to be known as SOWPODS as an easily-pronounced anagram of OSW and OSPD. Australia changed all its rated tournaments to using the SOWPODS word list in 1994, while the UK made the same change in 2001. This latter move coincided with the publication of the first official book to contain all words from OSW and OSPD (Chambers' Official Scrabble Words: International Edition).

Word count

The current combined SOWPODS list contains 267,751 words, [ [http://www.isc.ro/en/commands/lists.html Internet Scrabble Club word lists] ] of which there are:

ee also

* Tournament Word List

References

External links

* [http://www.scrabulous.com/sowpods_dictionary.php Sowpods Dictionary] (Scrabulous)
* [http://www.a2zwordfinder.com/internat2.html Searchable SOWPODS Dictionary]