Introduction  1

 

Chapter 1 - INTRODUCTION

 

My most memorable SCRABBLE® game came in the days before I even knew about the National SCRABBLE® Association or such things as SCRABBLE® clubs and tournaments.  I had just skied 15 miles into the mountains of Montana, where I planned to spend a week in solitude.  But the next morning a dogsled pulled up to my cabin door.  Tom Polk informed me he was my nearest neighbor, just twenty minutes away.

 

Tom and his wife were proving it was still possible to live without electricity or a motor of any kind.  They had built their cabin using only hand tools.  When I stepped in, the first thing I noticed was the warmth.  Outside it was 20 below zero, inside it was toasty warm.  Tom poured me some coffee and after a pleasant visit asked if I played SCRABBLE®.  Wow!

 

Tom's set was as unique as the man himself, a copyright infringement no doubt, but hey! this is Montana.  Each circular tile had been cut from a small tree limb, the letter was etched on with indelible ink.  Not far into the game, Tom played “Jar”.  I quickly hooked an L onto it, making “JARL” and “LEK” for 28 points.  Tom challenged with triumphant glee.  “A Norwegian nobleman and a strutting ground for grouse”, I said with certainty.  A previous guest had given Tom an Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary just for such occasions.  Tom’s eyebrows raised, one and then the other, when he saw that JARL and LEK were indeed words.  “Well, obviously while some of us are working, others are home studying the dictionary”, Tom groused as he put another log on the fire.

 

Yes indeed, why not put another log on the fire and then learn a Brow-Raiser or two that will allow you to win more than your share of home, club, or tournament games.

 

Brow-Raisers.  That’s what this book is about, outrageous words that will allow you to clean up ugly racks; get maximum points for your J, Q, X, and Z; and play weird or questionable bingos with confidence.  Probably most of you have seen all sorts of lists with words worth knowing.  If you’re like me though, perhaps your mind rebels at memorizing long alphabetical lists.  Is there another way?  Yes!  The key for me was dividing long lists into bite-size chunks, eliminating “noise”,  and then arranging the chunks in ways that facilitated memorization.  Soon I was playing KOP, JAUK,  RAMI, OIDIA, or SENARII confidently in competitive games. 

 

If you hate manuals, skip ahead.  I hope my organization is self-explanatory.  But, if you want some explanation, read on.

 

 

2  Introduction

 

The Words

 

Words deemed acceptable by the National SCRABBLE®  Association for tournament play form the basis for this guide.  Included are the words which became acceptable on March 1, 2006.  The following table breaks the words down by length.

 

       Word       Total Number  First Time*    

      Length          of words _        Words

            2                                 101               101            *By “First Time Word” I mean one that is not

            3                      1,015               950                          simply a shorter word plus “S”.  Eg.

            4                      4,030            3,241               “Brow” would be a First Time word. 

            5                      8,938            6,387               “Brows” would not be.

            6                    15,789        11,913

            7                    24,029        17,433

            8                    29,767        21,460

            9                    29,143        20,231

                                112,812                  81,716

     

Acceptable words are divided into two somewhat arbitrary categories, which I call regular words and Brow-Raisers.  Regular words are those that most any SCRABBLE® player would accept with no fuss and no surprise.  Brow-Raisers are words that some people would consider obscure,  Or in the case of the Twos, Threes, and Fours, words that beginning players might recognize, but might not realize were okay.  HM, ET, or BETA might fit in that category.

More specifically: under Brow-Raisers I include obscure words (KA, TUI, VUGH, ETESIAN); English, Greek, and Hebrew letters (EF, PHI, FEH); musical tones (RE, MI, UT); interjections (HM, OOH, WOW); colloquialisms (MA, ET, GIT, SORTA);  some vulgarities and  racial slurs; shortenings (AB, GUV, PREZ); blatantly foreign words (DE, EAU, AMI); and plausible words questioned by Microsoft Word’s spell-checker (CONNERS, FOODIES, OUTDARE, VIEWIER).

 

What’s the point of creating a Brow-Raiser category?  To eliminate noise and to emphasize words that are most likely to be useful additions to one’s SCRABBLE® vocabulary.  As an example consider the two lists:      1) BCEFGJLMOPTVWY  AR

                             2) bcefjmoptw GLVY AR

Both list 1) and list 2) present the front hooks to the two-letter word “AR”, but list 2) does so more efficiently.    Almost every English speaker knows that “BAR, CAR, EAR, FAR, JAR, MAR, OAR, PAR, TAR, and WAR” are legitimate words.  However, many fewer people will know that “GAR, LAR, VAR, and YAR” are legitimate.  These are the words that someone mastering the threes ought to concentrate on. 

Introduction  3

 

Obviously, many words will fall near the division line and people might disagree about whether a word is or is not a Brow-Raiser?  Is ALB a regular word or a Brow-Raiser? Probably most SCRABBLE®  players are familiar with it.  However, especially for shorter words, I’ll attempt to err on the side of putting too many words into the Brow-Raiser category, rather than too few.   For longer words I’ll rely more on Microsoft Word’s spell-checker.  I’ll call anything it questions a Brow-Raiser and I’ll tend to accept anything it doesn’t question as a word that most SCRABBLE®  players are likely to know.

 

Note that the National SCRABBLE® Association added 3,304 2-8 letter words to its official word list on March 1, 2006 and subtracted 5.  This Second Edition of Brow-Raisers incorporates those changes.  This means it is not in agreement with the First Edition of Brow-Raisers.  And it is not in agreement with the Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary - Third Edition.   Also note that the National SCRABBLE® Association is not shy about accepting vulgarities and racial slurs for tournament play.  This guide includes them, but such words might be forbidden for School play and are not included in the Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary – Fourth Edition..

 

 

Broad Organization

 

As noted above, The National SCRABBLE® Association recognizes 112,812 words of nine letters or less that are acceptable for tournament and club play.  This guide makes no attempt to cover all of these words.  Instead the emphasis is on a subset of words that could dramatically improve one’s SCRABBLE® fortunes.  These words are organized into chapters based on word length.  The chapters titled, “The Twos”, “The Threes” and “The Fours” cover all of the short words.  The chapter titled, “The Fives” covers all five-letter Brow-Raisers.  “The Sixes” covers the most useful Six-letter words, but is far from complete. “The Sevens”, and “The Eights” concentrate on high probability bingos.  Chapter nine provides a valuable reference for learning Seven and Eight-letter bingos with common prefixes or suffixes.  Declinable verbs and adjectives are all listed together.  Together, chapters seven, eight, and nine cover about a third of all Seven and Eight-letter bingos.

 

Each chapter is divided into several sections:

 

The Works lists all of the Twos, Threes, and Fours in alphabetical order.  Brow-Raisers are bolded.  Words that take a Back-S are noted.

        

Biggies are the words containing J, Q, X, or Z.  Knowing these words will allow one to make more than their share of  30 and 40 point plays.

 

Defenders are the words starting or ending with C, K, or V.  Good players often use these words to “shut down” the board or to score well without offering much in return.

4  Introduction

 

Dumps allow one to clean up difficult racks and score a few points rather than toss.  Consider the rack: AEIILOU.  Ugly!  But playing: AIOLI, LOUIE, LIEU, ALOE, ILEA, ILIA, or OLEA for 10 or 15 points might well be better than tossing.

 

Hooks are single letters that can be added to the front or back of a word to make a longer word.  Knowing one’s hooks greatly increases scoring opportunities.  For example suppose your opponent plays “VEAL” as the first word of the game and you are lucky enough to find “JOCULAR” on your rack.  What do you do?  No problem, if you know that “UVEAL” is a word.  Frustrating otherwise!

 

An Anagram is a word made from another by rearranging its letters.  For example “PATE”, “PEAT” and “TEPA” are anagrams of “TAPE”.  An Anagram section exists for the Threes, Fours and Fives.  Many people find this is a very effective way for remembering Brow-Raisers.

 

 About 5% of the Three, Four, or Five-letter Brow-Raisers are not covered by the Biggies, Dumps, Defenders, Hooks, or Anagrams categories.  Anyone wanting to master the short words completely, will find that the Remainder section provides a useful reference for words that aren’t covered elsewhere.

 

Three-Vowel Fives , Four-Vowel Sixes, and Five-Vowel Eights provide a useful reference for learning words that might help you clean up vowel heavy racks.

 

The Tricky Back-S section lists common words that become a Brow-Raiser when a back-S is added.  Examples include: IF, ON, ARE, LIT, CAME, and SAID.

 

A Patterns section will be found for the Threes and the Fours.  In this section words are arranged according to their vowel/consonant pattern and/or by their endings.  For many folks this will provide another valuable tool for getting strange words to stick.

 

Rough Definitions are provided for the Threes and the Fours.  Again the intent is to provide another tool for helping strange words stick. They are not to be taken too seriously.

 

Bingo Stems provide an efficient way to learn important Seven and Eight letter words.  Useful stems are combinations of six or seven letters that combine readily with several 7^th  or 8^th letters to form a bingo.  Example:  AEINST will combine with any letter except J, Q, or Y to form a bingo.

 

Chapter 9 is devoted to Bingo Roots.  By “Bingo Roots” I mean short words that can be expanded in a straight forward manner to form bingos.  Unlike the rest of the book, this chapter serves more as a reference work than as a means of breaking words into manageable chunks that can be memorized.  Mastering this chapter, would allow one to know when to play or challenge plausible, but questionable words like: CODDING, COWIEST, TAGGERS, RETAGGING, or UNTAGGING.  (Microsoft’s spell checker  rejects four of the five,  but The National SCRABBLE® Association accepts all of them.)  But, many of the lists are quite long, and, I for one, haven’t figured out an efficient way to master them.

Introduction  5

 

Memorization Aids provides clues to help one write out a list from memory. 

 

 

Conventions

 

1) Words are presented in capital type.  If the word takes a back-S, the “s” is shown in small type immediately following the word. Eg. ACEs

 

2) Brow-Raisers are bolded unless they can be formed by adding an “S” to a  shorter Brow-Raiser.  Common words aren=t bolded.   A list of the first eight three-letters words looks like: AAHs AALs AAs ABAs ABOs ABs  ABYs ACEs.

 

3)  A, E, I, O, and U are considered vowels. 

L, N, R, S, and T are considered low-point consonants.

B,C,D,F,G,H,K,M,P,V,W, and Y are considered high-point consonants.

J,Q,X, and Z are Biggie consonants.

 

4) In most lists “noise” is eliminated by excluding words that can be formed by adding an “S” to a shorter word covered in a previous chapter.  (EG. JABS, JIBS, and JOBS are not included in a list of four-letter J- words containing a “B”).

 

5) In places where words are arranged by their vowel and consonant patterns,  “V” is an abbreviation for vowel and “C” is an abbreviation for consonant.  “Y” is considered a consonant, but for pattern purposes is occasionally listed as “Y”.

 

 

Where to Start

 

            One problem with a book of this sort is that it can appear to be overwhelming.  However, by choosing manageable chunks and not worrying about learning everything at once, it can greatly increase your SCRABBLE® fortunes.  In the September 2004 issue of the National SCRABBLE® Association newsletter, Joe Edley prioritizes things for new players.  His recommendations: 1) The Twos are a must.  2) All the 2-to-make-3s are the next most important (I use the term Hooks see page 14).  3) The top ten 6-letter stems.  Edley’s top ten stems in order of importance are: AEINST, AEIRST, AEINRT, AEINRS, EIONRS, EIONST, AENRST, EINRST, EONRST, and AEENRST. (Basically, Groups 1, 2, and 3 of Chapter 7).  4) The Four-Letter Biggies (page 34).

6  Introduction

 

5) Vowel Dumps. (I’d say learn the 4-Letter ones, page 36, and the 5-Letter ones, page 75 first.  Put the 6-Letter ones a bit further down on the list of priorities.)

 

            What is next most useful, will likely vary by temperament and playing style.  One ranking would be: 6) The Five-letter Q-words.  7) All of the hooks to 3-letter words.  8)  The Four-letter  I-dumps, U-dumps, and IU-dumps.  9) The complete Threes.  10) The Five-Letter Biggies and 6-Letter Q-Words.

 

 

Specific Organization and Gory Details

 

The Works.  This section exists for the Twos, Threes and Fours.  Words are arranged in strict alphabetical order.  Brow-Raisers are bolded.  If the word takes a back-S, the “s” is shown in small type immediately following the word, Eg. ABAs.  If the “s” is likely to be unexpected, it is bolded, Eg. LITs. If a Three is a Two plus an “S”,  it is shown as such and is not bolded,  Eg. AAs.  A similar convention is followed for the Fours.   

 

Biggies.  This section exists for chapters Two – Eight.   All 2 –7 letter Biggies are covered.  The Eights are not quite complete.  In each chapter, an attempt is made to group the words in a way that will facilitate memorization. 

 

For the Threes, Fours, and Fives the primary considerations are: the first high-point letter, if there is one; the first low point consonant, otherwise; and the position of the big letter.  As an illustration, consider the words: JAMBs JIMP  JUMPs JISMs MOJOs.  All are four-letter words containing J, so are found in the J-section of Chapter Four.  Within the J-section they are grouped under “M”.  JAMB, JIMP, and JUMP are undef “M” and not “P” or “B” because “M” is the first high-point consonant.  JISM is under “M” and not “S” because high-point consonants receive a higher priority.  MOJO is found to the right of the grouping because the “J” is in third rather than first position.  JAMS is not found in Chapter 4, because it is included in Chapter 3 as JAMs.

 

For the Sixes, Sevens, and Eights the primary considerations are: does the word have a common ending?; does it have a short Biggie embedded in it?; if not, what is the position of the big-letter.  Words with common endings are grouped together.  Next, words are listed according to their embedded Biggie.  Finally, words are grouped by the position of the Biggie letter.  Words that require a blank to play are grouped separately.

 

Introduction  7

 

Dumps.   There are five kinds of dumps: 1) Vowel dumps (three-vowel Threes; three-vowel Fours; four-vowel Fives, and  five-vowel Sevens); 2) I-dumps (words containing two or more I’s); 3) U-dumps (words containing two or more U’s);  4) IU-dumps (words containing at least one I and one U); and 5) Consonant dumps (words that don’t contain an A, E, I, O, or U).  The primary consideration for organizing the dumps is their first consonant.  For the longer I, U, and IU dumps consideration is also given to whether they have two vowels or three.  For the consonant dumps, consideration is given to how many Y’s are involved.

 

Defenders.  This section exist for chapters 3 – 6.  All 3 –5 letter words beginning or ending with C, K, or V are covered.  The Sixes list only the words most likely to show up on your rack.  The organization varies by chapter, but is self-evident.

 

Hooks are arranged to emphasize the unusual.  Consider: bcefjmoptw GLVY AR. 

For the two-letter word “AR”, the common hooks are presented in lower-case, non-bolded letters.  Brow-raising hooks are presented in capital, bolded letters.  This is meant to quickly convey that GAR, LAR, VAR, and YAR are useful words to learn.  It is assumed that the reader will already have BAR, CAR, EAR, FAR, JAR, MAR, OAR, PAR, TAR and WAR in their vocabulary.

 

To eliminate “noise”, words with no unusual hooks are omitted from hook lists.  For example  in the list showing front-hooks for three-letter words, the  root word ACE is followed by ADO.  What happened to ACT and ADD?  ACT is omitted because FACT and PACT are common words.  ADD is omitted because it has no front hooks.

 

In general, a back-S hook is presented in lower-case, non-bolded letters even if the root wood is obscure.  Eg: “VUG   GH s” indicates that VUGG, VUGH, and VUGS are acceptable words, but VUGS is not emphasized since it was covered in the three-letter word section.

 

Brow-Raisers that can be formed by front-hooking an “A” or an “S” to a shorter word are listed together.  Brow-Raisers that can be formed by a back “D”, “I”, “R”, or “Y” hook are also considered separately.  Also listed separately are words with the Latin plural of “AE” and irregular verb forms ending in “T”.

 

Anagrams. This section exists for the Threes, Fours, and Fives.  All Brow-Raising Threes and Fours that have anagrams other than themselves are included.  For the Fives, only groups that contain at least one Brow-Raisers not covered elsewhere are considered.  The sections are organized first by how many anagrams are in a group (Eg. [DIOL IDOL LIDO LOID] is a group of four, [COIF, FICO, FOCI] is a group of three,  [ABBA, BABA] is a group of two.).  Within a group they are ordered alphabetically by their common alphagram even though the alphagram isn’t explicitly shown. (Eg. the alphagram for “LOID” is DILO, for “FOCI” it is CFIO).

8  Introduction

 

Three-Vowel Fives, Four-Vowel Sixes, Five-Vowel Eights.  Special sections exists for these groups which aren’t quite dumps, but which can be very helpful with an unbalanced rack.  The Fives are ordered according to which vowels the word contains.  The Sixes and Eights are ordered by their endings so that for instance [GALEAE FALEAE OCREAE FOVEAE] group together.

 

Tricky Back-S.  This is a fairly subjective category covered for the Twos, Threes, Fours, and Fives.  It contains words that take a back-S, but at first glance are likely to be recognized as common words that are prepositions, adjectives, past tenses of verbs, or otherwise not suitable for a back-S.  Examples include: ONS, LITS, AFARS, and ABOVES.  Less subjective are lists of words that previously did not take a back-S, but as of March 1, 2006 do.

 

Remainder.  Threes, Fours, or Fives that can’t be covered by Biggies, Dumps, Defenders, Hooks, or Anagrams are listed in a Remainder or None-of-the-Above section.  This is done for reference purposes, not memorization purposes.

 

 Patterns.  Learning all of the Threes and Fours is an achievable and almost necessary goal for anyone striving to play at the intermediate tournament level.  Many people find it useful to learn unfamiliar words in pairs, triplets, or sometimes slightly larger groups.  One useful way of making such groupings is by putting words with similar endings together.  For example, I personally, can’t think of ACYL without immediately thinking of AMYL and ARYL.  Another nice triplet is DAUT, HAUT, MAUT.  For the Threes, I order all 1,015 words in a logical way.  Words with the same vowel/consonant pattern are grouped together, then within a group they are ordered in a logical and, I hope, obvious way.  For the Fours, I pair every Brow-Raiser with at least one other word.  These pairings are somewhat subjective and not everyone would do them the same way.  My first priority is grouping words with the same last three last letters. I have what I call “complete” and “incomplete” groupings.  A “complete” group has all of the words with a particular ending Eg.[NETT, SETT, YETT].  An “incomplete” group leaves out one or more common words in order to emphasize the unusual.  Eg. [BOCK, NOCK, YOCK] is an incomplete group that does not include [COCK, DOCK, HOCK, JOCK, LOCK, MOCK, POCK, ROCK, or SOCK].  Some Brow-Raisers do not have any other Four with the same last three letters.  In such cases I then consider in order of priority: 1) words with the same 1st, 3rd, and 4th letter, eg. [ACYL, AMYL, ARYL]; 2) words with the same 1st, 2nd, and 4th letter, eg. [MAKO, MANO, MAYO]; 3) words with the same 1st, 2nd, and 3rd letter, eg. [KHAF, KHAN, KHAT]; 4) words with an unusual last two letters, eg. [DAHL, KOHL, BUHL]; 5) anagrams eg. [ELMY, YLEM]; and 6) arbitrary groupings eg. [OLLA, ORRA, OSSA].

 

Rough Definitions.  The only point of this section is to provide one more tool to aid in the retention and recall of strange words.  I’ve tried to include all of the Three and Four letter Brow-Raisers, but have done so in a totally arbitrary manner.  On the website http://www.browraisers.com/ one can find rough definitions for the Fives.

 

Introduction  9

 

Bingo Stems - The format is discussed extensively on page 112

 

Bingo Roots.  Chapter 9 attempts to present in a systematic way the Three, Four, Five, or Six letter words that can be extended to form seven or eight letter bingos with common prefixes or suffixes.  It begins by considering verbs that can be declined to form “ED” or “ING” bingos.   They are divided into four categories as explained on page 190.  Within each category they are further divided according to whether or not they can also be extended with “ER” and “ERS”.  Only the root word is shown.  If any one of the root word extensions is spell-checker questioned or if I feel a word is somewhat marginal, the root word is bolded.  (I’ll note here that I often, personally, disagree with the spell checker, but, regardless,  I always bold a word it questions.  It seems to be especially sensitive about questioning  “ERS” words.)  If the “ING” form can take a back-S, an “*” is placed after the root word.

 

Following the section on verbs is a section for declinable adjectives that can form “ER” or “EST” bingos.  Next is a section for “LY” adverbs.  Then a section for “IES” bingos. The next section covers words ending in: ABLE, EE, INGS, ISH, IST, FUL, LESS, LIKE, MAN, MEN, NESS, OUT, or  OVER.  Next is a section that covers common prefixes.  In a bit of redundancy, declinable verbs with the following prefixes are covered: BE, DE, EM, EN, IM, IN, MIS, OUT, OVER, PRE, RE, UN, and UP.  In this same section non-verbs are covered with the following prefixes: ANTI, IN, OUT, OVER, PRE, SUB, TRI, UN, and UP.

 

There are a few caveats that ought to be stated here.  My verb lists were computer generated.  I pretty much assumed that if a root word could be extended with an “ED” and an “ING” it was a regular verb;  if a word could be extended with “ER” and “EST” it was a declinable adjective; and if a word could be extended with “LY”, the resulting word was an adverb.  For some “ING” words there was more than one possibility for the root word.  Consider MATTING for instance.  As it turns out MAT, MATT, and MATTE are all verbs that decline to MATTING.  Now consider BUTTING.  BUTT is a verb.  BUT and BUTTE aren’t.  I’ve tried to accurately choose the correct roots in such cases, but an error or two is possible.  Now consider RUCHE, RUCHED, and RUCHING. All three are legitimate words, but RUCHE is not a verb.  Or WIT, WITTED, and WITTING.  WIT is not a regular verb that can be declined to WITTED.  I’ve deliberately left RUCHE and WIT in the list since they act as if they were regular verbs.  There are likely to be a few similar cases I’m not aware of.

 

Another caveat has to do with verbs ending in “T” or “L”.  Many can be declined either by a) simply adding “ED” or “ING” or b) by first doubling the “T” or “L” and then adding “ED” or “ING”.  Eg. BEVELED, BEVELLED, BEVELING, and BEVELLING are all good.  I list such verbs twice plus put them in a special section where they can be easily referenced.

 

10  Introduction

 

 

Memorization Aids are found in Chapter 10.  The aids show how many words are in certain categories so that they can be written out from memory.  For example, for the 4-letter J words,  “B (4)” indicating there are four words under the B category.  As another example consider “(14,4) AR”, found under a front-hook exercise.  This indicates  there are 14 front-hooks to “AR” and 4 of the hooks form brow-raisers.

 

 

Errata

 

The tables found in this book were generated from a computer data base, which I believe to be 100% accurate.  On this data base I have fields for: the word, its value, its alphagram, its front hooks, its back hooks, and its vowel/consonant pattern.  From this database, I can generate just about any table imaginable ordered alphabetically.  Often times, however,  I want to change the alphabetical order that is computer generated.  In Brow-Raisers Edition One, I made the rearrangement by retyping.  I naively believed, I could do so without making any transcription errors.  In this Edition Two, I’ve used the cut and paste facility of Microsoft Word to do the rearrangements.  This should guarantee that there are no spelling errors.  However, due to the cut and paste process, it is possible to make mistakes of omission.  I’ve attempted to make sure there are none, and feel about 99.9% sure that is the case.  Indicating whether a word does or doesn’t take a back-S, was done by a computer/human interaction.  I tried to be very careful that it was done accurately, but again there is a small chance I made a mistake or two.  I plan to have an “errata” section on my website.  If you do find anything amiss, please notify me at browraisers@lycos.com .  If you are the first to note an error of spelling, of omission, or of an improper “S” indication, I’ll provide you a free book.

 

Most everybody will have some disagreements about what I do or do not call Brow-Raisers and almost certainly, some will disagree about the way I’ve ordered things, or about some of my “rough definitions”.   I’d love to hear your comments on these subjective areas, as they might help me make a future edition even better.

         

 

This chapter has been much too pedantic for my taste!  Turn the page and have some fun!