Zedonk, vibed, and adorbs: Official Scrabble dictionary adds 500 new words

Scrabble's official vocabulary just got wider. Credit: AP

Fresh 'inspo' is instore for blazing family rows over the Scrabble board, as 500 new words are added to the popular boardgame's official dictionary.

The seventh edition of "The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary" comes out this month, and the diminutive for 'inspiration' is among terms being added to the list of 100,000 words of two to eight letters already accepted.

But the latest set of words look set to create a debate between generations of diehard Scrabble fans with polarising views on the game's lingua franca.

New additions include sitch, guac and convo, suggesting a trend toward the acceptance of familiar online vernacular in Scrabble vocabularies.

The technologically literate will also recognise new additions like unfollow, unsub, and unmute.

Compound words are also on the rise, with deadname, pageview and fintech all joining the list of official Scrabble words.

The last update came in 2018 through a longstanding partnership between Hasbro and Merriam-Webster.

Some of the latest additions include:

  • Dumpster

  • Adulting

  • Atted

  • Verbing

  • Allyship

  • Subtweet

  • Stan

  • Babymoon

  • Inspo

  • Vibed

  • Bae

  • Welp

  • Slushee

  • Hygge

  • Marg

  • Zoomer

  • GenZ

  • Jedi

  • Adorbs

Fauxhawk, a haircut similar to a Mohawk, is the highest-scoring new word, due to its inclusion of valuable Scrabble letters including 'x' and 'k'.

The new book only applies to normal play, as official tournaments have their own set of agreed-upon words - as do many ordinary households who live by their own Scrabble rules.

The official rules of Scrabble do allow words from any dictionary, but the special Scrabble dictionary is also available and sometimes comes with deluxe versions of the board game.

Some words are also being removed from the dictionary. Some 200-plus racial, ethnic and otherwise offensive words were scrubbed from the list, despite their presence in some dictionaries .

Among the more unusual additions are Zonkey - which is a cross of a male zebra and a female donkey, and Zedonk, which is the reverse.

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