Collins Scrabble Words ( CSW , formerly SOWPODS ) is the word list used in English-language tournament Scrabble in most countries except the US, Thailand and Canada. The term SOWPODS is an anagram of the two abbreviations OSPD (Official Scrabble Players Dictionary) and OSW (Official Scrabble Words), 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 has not been any actual hard-copy list produced called SOWPODS, although the current Collins Scrabble Words, or CSW, is in effect the full SOWPODS list by a different name.
8-747: Currently the two main sources for the words making up the combined list (generally known as Collins) are: In 1980 in the United Kingdom, the Chambers Dictionary 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
16-444: Is no longer the official Scrabble dictionary). It contains many more dialectal , archaic, unconventional and eccentric words than its rivals, and is noted for its occasional wryly humorous definitions. Examples of such definitions include those for éclair ("a cake, long in shape but short in duration") and middle-aged ("between youth and old age, variously reckoned to suit the reckoner"). These jocular definitions were removed by
24-557: Is the smaller 21st Century Dictionary of 1664 pages, where "the focus is on the English that people use today, and definitions are given in straightforward, accessible language". This dictionary can be accessed for free online . In an agreement with Mattel 's predecessor, J. W. Spear & Sons , the Chambers Dictionary was, for several decades, the official source of words for the book Official Scrabble Words (OSW),
32-568: 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). In December 2003, Collins took over
40-485: The publication of the official word list sanctioned by WESPA , and the current edition is CSW22. The only change from CSW19 to CSW22 is the deletion of 419 words deemed to be hate speech. This is following a directive from Mattel , who committed to ongoing review and removal of words and definitions, removing hate speech from the game and obliging Collins publisher as a licensee to implement these changes. Chambers Dictionary The Chambers Dictionary ( TCD )
48-506: The publisher in the 1970s, but many of them were reinstated in 1983 because of the affection in which they were held by readers. The twelfth edition of The Chambers Dictionary was published in August 2011 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd and runs to 1936 pages with 62,500 main entries. This edition is available for mobile use as an iPhone, iPad, or Android app. That has been followed by the thirteenth edition published in 2014. Also on sale
56-447: Was first published by William and Robert Chambers as Chambers's English Dictionary in 1872. It was an expanded version of Chambers's Etymological Dictionary of 1867, compiled by James Donald. A second edition came out in 1898, and was followed in 1901 by a new compact edition called Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary . TCD is widely used by British crossword solvers and setters, and by Scrabble players (though it
64-494: Was published under the title Official Scrabble Words from Chambers (this would come to be known as OSW). North American Scrabble was using the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (OSPD), hence when the first World Scrabble Championship took place in 1991 words from either word source were allowed. Over the following years there was disagreement in the competitive Scrabble community over
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