Collins released the much promised WESPA-approved official Scrabble Word List yesterday 2nd May 2019. The updated word list which according to the publishers is "the latest official Scrabble word list, endorsed by governing body WESPA for use in tournament and club play from 1st July 2019, contains all valid Scrabble words". The list contains over 279,000 words approved for Scrabble.
According to Technical Director Faruq BabaInna, the Nigeria Scrabble Federation will adopt the new dictionary from July 1st 2019. The date also coincides with WESPA's official usage for international tourneys.
An Initiation Kit for the 2019 update is available on the WESPA website.
The new Collins word list aka CSW19 will be out in May 2019, WESPA Dictionary Committee announced recently. WESPA Chairman, Elie Dangoor confirmed that the guide date for adoption in WESPA related events is July 1st 2019 and member associations are 'free to choose their own adoption date, although we would expect them to comply for WESPA rated events, especially international ones' in an interview on the WESPA website.
The Nigeria Scrabble Federation Technical Director, Faruq Baba-Inna has confirmed July 1st as the official adoption date for all Scrabble events in Nigeria.
A total of 2,862 (two thousand eight hundred and sixty-two) new words will be added into CSW19 while 29 words are to be deleted from the current (CSW15) list. The total number of words in CSW19 will be 279496 according to WESPA Dictionary Committee Chair, Darryl Francis in the interview. Dictionary Committee member, David Sutton confirms that an Initiation Kit will be made available in electronic (.pdf) form on May 2nd this year.
The new additions include 3 (three) new two-letter words like EW, ZE and OK and 6 (six) new three-letter words. EW (used to express disgust) and OK (all right) are adoptions from The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary 6th edition (OSPD6), while ZE (used as a gender-neutral third person) was adopted from the 2018 edition of Collins English Dictionary. According to Darryl, the new words are from three sources.
Sources : Collins Dictionary, Hasbro Scrabble Tools and WESPA
