Now You Can Play Ridic, Obvs, Bezzy in Scrabble

Lolz, too: Dictionary embraces new and not-so-new slang
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 21, 2015 5:35 PM CDT
Now You Can Play Ridic, Obvs, Bezzy in Scrabble
The Scrabble dictionary is getting bigger.   (AP Photo/Hazleton Standard-Speaker Ellen F. O'Connell)

One of the most widely used Scrabble dictionaries is making room for 6,500 new entries. The hard-core will want to make note of quinzhee, an Inuit snow shelter that the BBC notes will rack up 29 points, followed closely by checkbox at 28. But everyone else gets to scoff or nod approvingly at additions such as:

  • Bezzie (best friend), 18 points
  • Blech, 12 points
  • Cakehole (mouth), 17 points
  • Cazh (casual), 18 points
  • Dench (excellent), 11 points
  • Lolz, 13 points
  • Obvs, 9 points
  • Ridic, 8 points
  • Sexting, 15 points
  • Shizzle, 18 points
  • Thanx, 15 points
  • Twerking, 16 points
  • Yeesh, 11 points

In a column for the Guardian, the reigning Scrabble champion welcomes them all. "For a player, new words provide fresh ammunition and change the dynamics a little here and there, as well as giving me something new to learn, of course," writes Craig Beevers. "I personally look forward to these updates; they keep things fresh." But Gizmodo isn't nearly as kind ("Welcome to the Sad, Sad Future of Scrabble" reads the headline) and rounds up some of the negative reaction. (More Scrabble stories.)

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