From hiraeth to washi: discover the latest words added to the Collins Dictionary

Language experts are in broad agreement that English has one of the richest vocabularies of any language. Speakers of English have about twice as many words at their disposal than speakers of Spanish or Chinese have. This abundance is due to the way English was born out of a collision… Read More

‘Hepatomegaly’ and ‘hydronephrosis’ are among the most frequently looked-up words in September

You can get a certain insight into human nature from analysing the words that people look up in dictionaries. There are some words that seem to be of perennial interest, so if you compare the list of words that were looked up most often in March with the words that… Read More

World Space Week

Today, 9 October, is the penultimate day of this year’s World Space Week, a UN event launched in 1999. Space Week falls at this calendar juncture because this first October week is bookended by two key dates. The fourth of October 1957 saw the launch of the Soviet… Read More

Scrabble™ Word Finder

An instant check for words allowed in Scrabble™. Includes Scrabble word definitions and scores. Collins is the only online Scrabble word checker to use the official tournament word list, including over a quarter of a million permissible words. It’s endorsed by Mattel and the World English-Language Scrabble™ Players’ Association. Read More

Scrabble™ Tools

Scrabble™ Software Downloads Based on Collins English Dictionary, Collins Official Scrabble™ Words 2021 is the most comprehensive Scrabble™ word list ever, including World English from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, UK, and USA brought together in a single list. With more than 279,000 permissible words, including inflected forms, this is a must… Read More

Scrabble™ Help

Collins is the Official Scrabble™ publisher, with over 279,000 playable words, Collins Scrabble™ books are used across the globe to settle Scrabble™ squabbles at every level. Whether a tournament player, a Scrabble™ champion-in-training or just playing for fun, the Collins Scrabble™ range caters for players’ needs. Discover the full range… Read More

From moonshoot to balconing: discover the latest words added to the Collins Dictionary

The online version of the Collins Dictionary has just been updated again, with another batch of new words and meanings inspired by the events of the summer. Perhaps the most newsworthy word of the past month was moonshot, which hit the headlines thanks to Boris Johnson using it in… Read More

Autumn equinox

‘The nights are fair drawing in’ is a trope about the weather that applies powerfully as you read this. The nights certainly are drawing in, and indeed, half past two in the afternoon on Tuesday 22 September this year marks the autumn equinox, when day and night are… Read More

‘Collop’ and ‘kenspeckle’ are among the most frequently looked-up words in August

In our recent blogs about which words are most commonly looked for on the Collins dictionary website, we have tended to stress how the searches reflect the changes in society brought about by the various stages of the global Covid-19 epidemic. But what is interesting about the list of words… Read More