Tips from the Champions – Craig Beevers

Craig Beevers, the current World Scrabble Champion, tells us his top tips. 1. Know your short wordsTwo and three letter words can enable you to score 20-30 points move after move without any big plays. Once they’re second nature you’ll have lots of parallel play opportunities at… Read More

Discover the New Scrabble Words

Over 6,500 new words have been added to the Collins Official Scrabble Wordlist – influenced by all parts of life, including social media, slang, technology and food, plus English from around the world. Delve into some of the new words below and discover the full Wordlist out… Read More

Scrabble FAQs

How many new words are in the new Collins Official Scrabble Words? 6,500 How do new words get chosen? Representatives from the Dictionary Committee of the World English-Language Scrabble Players Association (WESPA) – the international governing body for tournament Scrabble play excluding North America… Read More

The Lost World of Floriography

In honour of the world’s most prestigious Chelsea Flower Show coming up next week, Hazel Gaynor, author of A Memory of Violets, talks us through the language of flowers. While researching my novel A Memory of Violets I discovered the wonderful world of ‘floriography’. In the Victorian… Read More

Scrabble Week

What in the name of Scrabble is happening? Over 6,500 new playable Scrabble words join the Collins Official Scrabble Wordlist this May. To celebrate the biggest update in 4 years, Collins are hosting Scrabble Week 21-28 May. Sign up for a week of Scrabble tips,… Read More

Any ‘quamments’? Lucy Mangan questions and comments on your new word submissions

Quuuuiiiick – let’s get these last few election terms out before…well, before the new election term begins. “Milifan” and “Milifandom” (submitted by moneill) came to prominence just after my last blogpost, which rounded up previous GE2015-specific words, and refers to the – primarily young – coterie of Ed Miliband supporters… Read More

Etymology Corner – Election ‘Candidates’

With a general election occurring in Britain on May 7, there is no shortage of candidates seeking votes. The history of the word ‘candidate’ goes back to ancient Rome, where people who stood for political office would wear specially whitened togas while campaigning. These men came to be… Read More

‘Kitchen-sinking’, ‘Milifan’, and ‘Death Star’: April’s Words in the News

April is the cruellest month, at least when it’s the month before a General Election. I suppose political vocabulary is unavoidable in this month’s post. A recent television discussion programme asked if this election campaign has been relatively “sterile”, and indeed the search terms have been pretty boring. Read More

Will in the Words

In honour of Shakespeare Day, Christopher Moore, author of The Serpent of Venice, reminds us of Shakespeare’s gift to the English language. We all know the poet and playwright, but Shakespeare the wordsmith also coined more than 1700 original words in the English Language. Proper words, too,… Read More