Scrabble Word Records

By David K. Israel |

Here at the _floss, we love Scrabble and have written about it often. Among others, there's Stacy's post on Scrabble words that will help you win, my post on how Alfred Mosher Butts, inventor of Scrabble, couldn't spell very well, and even a quiz by Jason Plautz testing your knowledge of 2-letter words.

One of the topics we haven't really covered, however, are those big point-getters—the words that earn the most points and the people who've played "˜em. But before we get to them, let's start with some hypothetical word plays, or words played in theoretical games.

Obviously you're going to need to cover three triple-word-score squares to achieve these first couple. According to this site, using the OSPD (2nd ed.) and Merriam-Webster (9th ed.), the highest-scoring single play word, found by Dan Stock of Ohio, is OXYPHENBUTAZONE for 1,458 points. Add in hooked words, OPACIFYING for 63, YELKS for 12, PREInTERVIEWED for 25, BRAINWASHING for 63, AMELIORATIVE for 17, ZARFS for 27, EJACULATING for 63 and a 50 point bonus, and the grand total for this theoretical move is 1,778 points!

Scrabulizer.com confirmed this move, and redid it using only words from TWL06. With the rack ABEOPXZ, playing oxyphenbutazone, they were able to up 1,778 to 1,780. See the image below.

They were also able to get all the way up to 2,015 points using TWL06 only and the word sesquioxidizing (which doesn't actually exist in any of the Scrabble dictionaries), from the rack DGIQSXZ. So where does this antiquated word live? Online, of course. Right here. ["Well the word is derived from the word "sesquioxide", and thus not found in the dictionary directly (Endangered)"]

2ndscrabble
2ndscrabble /

Now on to some real world records!

Presently, Michael Cresta holds the record here in the U.S. for most points played in a single game. He set it in 2006, topping a 13-year-old record of 770 points. So how many points did Cresta rack up? How about a whopping 830!

Slate has a really long, well-written post detailing each play, if you're interested, but suffice it to say, Cresta started the game with a bingo, and eventually had a record-breaking single turn of 365 points for the word QUIXOTRY (quixotic action or thought). He and his opponent, Wayne Yorra, wound up breaking another record that game, too: the most total points in a game: 1,320, as Yorra racked up 490, and played several bingoes of his own!

slateboard
slateboard /

Wiki has some stats that are also worth noting:

# Highest opening move score (OSPD) "“ MUZJIKS (with a blank for the U) 126 by Jesse Inman (S.C.) at the National Scrabble Championship, 2008.[27] The highest possible legal score on a first turn is MUZJIKS 128, using an actual U rather than a blank. # Highest opening move score (SOWPODS) "“ BEZIQUE 124 by Joan Rosenthal.[28] BEZIQUE 124 by Sally Martin.[28] * High game score of 1,049 by Phil Appleby of Lymington, Hants, UK, on June 25, 1989 in Wormley, Herts, UK. His opponent scored just 253 points, giving Appleby a record victory margin of 796 points. * High single-turn score of 392, by Dr. Saladin Karl Khoshnaw[29] in Manchester, UK, in April 1982. The word he used was CAZIQUES, meaning "native chiefs of West Indian aborigines".

What are the most points you've ever racked up on one word? How about one game? What were the words? We want to hear about it!