Ew! 300 words added to Scrabble game’s dictionary

NEW YORK: Ew. Just when you’ve mastered enough legitimate Scrabble words to beat your bestie on the game board and twerk in victory, Merriam-webster has released a sixth edition of The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary.

The newest dictionary for Scrabble, the popular board game in which players use lettered tiles to spell words, includes more than 300 new entries, including “ew,” defined as an expression of disgust; “bestie,” a best friend, and “twerk,” which is a dance that involves shaking your buttocks while squatting.

The player’s dictionary, published by Merriamwebster, is the gauntlet thrown down when one player questions the validity of another’s word play. If the challenged word is not found in its pages, the player loses a turn.

The arsenal in the update released on Monday also includes “beatdown,” defined as an overwhelming defeat; “bizjet,” a small airplane used for business; and “frowny,” which unsurprisingly means showing a frown.

While some additions skew towards younger players, others exude the sophistication of an international traveller. Those include arancini, which Italian food aficionados will recognise as balls of cooked rice, and qapik, a monetary unit used in Azerbaijan.

“It’s a way to keep Scrabble fun instead of contentious,” said Emily Brewster, associate editor at Merriam-webster. “It’s a great moderator in a game that can get pretty impassioned.” Her favourite new addition, she said, is qapik, because it begins with “Q,” a high-scoring tile in the game, but doesn’t require being followed by the usual “U” to complete the word.