BALANCE YOUR RACK
If you ever graduate from playing Scrabble with family and friends to entering big-time tournaments, here are some terms that will help you sound like a P–R–O.
BINGO
Any word that uses all seven letters on the rack (you earn an extra 50 points).
NATURAL BINGO
A bingo made with no blank tiles. (“Blank bingos” are made using one or more blank tiles.)
NONGO
When you have a Bingo on your rack, but there’s no room for it on the board. Also called a Dingo (short for “Din’ go anywhere”).
STEMS
Five- and six-letter tile combinations that are especially useful for forming bingos.
CLOSED BOARD
A board on which there are few or no remaining opportunities for bingos or other high-scoring plays.
PALMING
Concealing an unwanted tile in the palm of your hand in order to slip it back into the bag when reaching for new tiles (it’s against the rules).
HOOK/HOOK LETTER
A letter that spells a new word when it’s added to the beginning or end of a word already on the board.
EXTENSION
Like a hook, but with two or more letters that create a new word when added to a word already on the board.
BLOCKER
A word that’s difficult to hook or extend (“vug” or “fez,” for example).
POLECAT PASS
Discarding an unplayable Q when the game is nearly over.
Q-GAME
A close game that is decided by which player gets stuck with the Q.
ALPHAGRAM
When the tiles on your rack are arranged in alphabetical order.
HEAVY TILES
Consonants with high point values (Q and Z are the heaviest tiles: they’re worth 10 points each).
Most favorite color: 40 percent of people say they like blue the best.
Feeling the surface of the tiles when your hand is in the bag, in order to grab a blank tile or one that has the letter you want (it’s against the rules).
TYPO
An uncommon word that looks like a common word that has been misspelled. They can be used to trick opponents into challenging words that are valid. (“Sycosis,” for example, is a real word that looks like “psychosis” misspelled.)
COFFEE-HOUSING
Any behavior, such as chatting, drumming your fingers, etc., that distracts your opponent (this is against the rules in tournament play).
ENDGAME
When there are fewer than seven tiles remaining in the draw bag.
OPEN SCRABBLE
A variant of the standard game in which all tiles are played faceup.
RACK BALANCING
Playing your tiles in a way that leaves letters on your rack that are likely to help you score well in your next turn.
STUTTERER
A word that ends in duplicate letters (“baa,” “too,” etc.).
TURNOVER
When a player plays as many tiles as possible in order to draw the maximum number of new tiles from the bag.
POWER TILES
The ten most advantageous tiles (the two blanks, the four Ss, and the J, Q, X, and Z), either because of their high point value or the ease with which they can be used to make words.
TRACKING
The Scrabble equivalent of counting cards—studying the letters on the board to get a sense of what letters are still in the bag or on an opponent’s rack.
BLOWOUT/GRANNY
A game so lopsided (one player gets all the good tiles) that even your granny couldn’t lose. Also called a No-Brainer.
FAST-BAGGING
If a player wants to challenge whether a word is real or not, they must do it before the player in question draws their tiles from the bag, ending the turn. Drawing tiles immediately after a word is played can deny opponents the opportunity to challenge it.
FISHING
Playing only one or two tiles, in order to hang on to five or six tiles in the hope of playing a high-scoring word in the next turn.
Luc Besson wrote and directed The Fifth Element at age 38, based on an idea he had when he was 8.