Spelling success Want to stick it to your Scrabble opponent? Then hope you spy "MUZJIKS" on your tile holder.
Not including the 50-point bingo for using all seven letters, bonuses for any double- or triple-letter/word scores and any points doled out by connected words, the 29 natural points you can net for "MUZJIKS" makes it a true Scrabble heavyweight -- the highest scoring seven-letter shot out there. Use it on your first turn and you'll land a jaw-dropping 128 points, another high. Not bad for a rarely-used word describing Russian peasants.
Hasbro's long-running word game is more popular than ever these days, though it seems most folks are playing a copycat instead of the real deal. But whether you're sinking time into the iPhone smash Words With Friends, working on your vocab with Facebook phenom Lexulous, or just tiling away at honest-to-goodness Scrabble itself, knowing the biggest scorers will certainly help, rare though they might be.
The first thing you have to do, though, is agree on the official word list. Two 28-pointers -- "SQUEEZY" and the equally-odd "QUARTZY" -- are currently not recognized in the Tournament Word List (TWL) used in North America and Thailand. However, they are considered playable words according to SOWPODS, the word list used just about everywhere else.
[Related: Scrabble changes rules for first time]
If you want to keep the peace, consider "JUKEBOX," "MEZQUIT" or "CAZIQUE" -- all natural 27-pointers, and all found in both official dictionaries.
Some other epic words:
- QUIXOTRY (noun, visionary schemes). Played by carpenter Michael Cresta in 2006, it nabbed him the TWL record for the most points on a single turn. It also helped him set the record for the highest individual game score of 830.
- ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACETATES (plural noun, a kind of acid). At 28 letters, it's the longest technically acceptable Scrabble word, but with only 15 spaces to work with, it's impossible to use.
- SYZYGY (noun, an alignment of celestial objects). Though it "only" nets 21 points, it's fun to say, contains no vowels (unless you count the Ys) and is therefore off-the-charts cool.
Got some personal Scrabble faves? Share away in the comments!
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