National Scrabble Day
Seven tiles, a board, a friendly argument about whether "qi" is a word (it is). National Scrabble Day on April 13 honors the board game that has quietly become a lifelong hobby for tens of millions of Americans.
Why it matters
LAY DOWN TILES!
It’s National Scrabble Day — April 13. Alfred Butts’s birthday, and the official day for America’s greatest word game. Pull out the board. Find a human. Play.
The Story
Scrabble was invented by an unemployed architect during the Great Depression and nearly abandoned before it accidentally became a cultural institution.
Alfred Mosher Butts was an unemployed New York architect in 1931 when he began tinkering with a word game that combined anagrams with crosswords. His big insight was tile frequency — which letters should be common and which rare. He studied the front page of The New York Times, counting letter frequencies, and used the data to set Scrabble’s tile distribution. (There are exactly as many E tiles as there are Es on a typical NYT page.) He called it “Lexiko,” then “Criss-Cross Words,” then “It,” then (after partnering with entrepreneur James Brunot) “Scrabble.”
It flopped initially. Butts and Brunot made 2,400 sets by hand between 1948 and 1952 and sold them slowly through gift shops. Then in 1952, Jack Strauss, then-chairman of Macy’s department store, played Scrabble on vacation, loved it, and ordered it for his stores. The game took off overnight. By 1953, Brunot couldn’t keep up with demand. He licensed the game to Selchow & Righter, who sold millions in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1971, Selchow & Righter had sold their entire company’s non-Scrabble inventory to focus just on the game.
Today, over 150 million Scrabble sets have been sold worldwide, in 29 languages. The official dictionary — the Scrabble Players Dictionary — contains over 200,000 playable words, including notorious ones like QI (life force), ZA (slang for pizza), AA (lava), and JNANA (Hindu knowledge). The World Scrabble Championship has been held since 1991. Top American players include Nigel Richards (5-time champion) and Mack Meller.
National Scrabble Day is Alfred Butts’s birthday — April 13, 1899. Butts died in 1993 at age 93, having played Scrabble his entire adult life. His story is the most American kind: invented a game during hard times, got rejected for 15 years, became an institution. Play a game today. Butts would approve.
The best way to improve at Scrabble is to read more. The second best way is to play more.
Scrabble Strategy Essentials
Four principles that separate beginners from serious players:
Premium Squares
Triple Word Scores (TWS) are game-defining. Aim for them. If you use all 7 tiles on a TWS, you can score 100+ points on one turn.
Use High-Point Tiles Wisely
J, Q, X, Z are 8-10 points. Stock them for double-letter and triple-letter squares. Never dump them without a premium.
The 2-Letter Words
There are 107 of them. AA, AB, ED, EL, QI, ZA, and so on. They let you play “parallel plays” that score in multiple directions at once.
Save the Blanks
Blank tiles are worth 0 points individually but enable 7-letter “bingo” words (50-point bonus). Saving blanks for a good bingo wins tournaments.
The 2-Letter Words Worth Memorizing
Six of the most useful — learn these six and your scores will jump immediately:
Did You Know?!
Alfred Butts tested Scrabble with his wife Nina for 15 years.
Nina was his first and most frequent opponent. She was reportedly better than him. Butts never claimed to be a great Scrabble player.
Michael Cresta scored 830 in a single game.
2006 Lexington, MA Scrabble club game. Set the all-time tournament record. Played an “octopus” playing word off multiple premium squares.
The word “SCRABBLE” is trademarked everywhere.
Hasbro owns the U.S. and Canada trademark. Mattel owns the rest of the world. The game is identical; the logo and spelling are legally protected.
Nigel Richards can play Scrabble in French — without speaking French.
Won the French World Scrabble Championship in 2015 after memorizing the French Scrabble dictionary in 9 weeks. Doesn’t understand the words’ meanings. Won twice.
Read & Play
Word Freak
Stefan Fatsis · 2001
A journalist embeds with competitive Scrabble players over a year. The definitive inside account of the tournament scene. Funny, moving, unforgettable.
Everything Scrabble
Joe Edley & John Williams · 2009
From a 3-time world champion. The complete strategy guide — tile management, premium squares, endgame. The textbook, essentially.
Scrabble Players Dictionary
Merriam-Webster · Updated Regularly
The official word list. 200,000+ words. Lookup indispensable for serious play; fun to browse even if you’re not.
Pair It With
Word Wars (2004) — the documentary about competitive Scrabble players. Brilliant and heartbreaking.
Bothered by Words, a Scrabble-focused podcast. For the word-obsessed.
Coffee. Scrabble requires concentration. Coffee aids concentration. Self-explanatory.
Scrabble GO or Words With Friends. Play against anyone, anywhere. Endless opponents.
Play A Game Tonight!
Tag us @celebrationnation with #NationalScrabbleDay. Biggest play of the game wins a feature.
How to celebrate
Play. That's the whole holiday:
- 🎲 Pull out the board tonight. Invite anyone. Don't have one? $25 at any bookstore or Target.
- 📱 Play online. Words With Friends and Scrabble GO both work on every phone. Play with a distant relative.
- 📖 Learn the 2-letter words. There are 107 of them. Memorizing adds 30-50 points to your average score immediately.
- 🏆 Try tournament Scrabble. The North American Scrabble Players Association runs tournaments in most cities. Welcoming to beginners.
- 🎓 Teach a kid. Scrabble builds vocabulary, spelling, and strategic thinking. Great gateway to word games.
Celebration ideas by audience
For families
Family Scrabble night. Kids can use a dictionary; adults can't. Levels the playing field while teaching strategy.
For kids
Scrabble Junior exists for ages 5-8. Real Scrabble works for ages 8+. Word-game literacy is a lifelong gift.
For couples
Couples-Scrabble (playing as a team against friends) is weirdly great for relationships. You see each other's thinking.
At the office
Lunchtime Scrabble club. Once a week. Bonds form; vocabularies grow; lunch breaks transform.
At school
Scrabble as vocabulary building is pedagogically excellent. Many schools have Scrabble clubs. Quiet, focused, social.
In your community
Library Scrabble night is a gentle third-place activity. Many libraries run free Scrabble evenings for seniors.
On your own
Play on your phone against the computer. Set it to hard. You'll lose the first 20 games. Then you'll start winning.