The best Scrabble players are the strategic ones who keep adding words to their player vocabulary. Once you’ve mastered a number of two-letter words and the high-scoring ones (that are admittedly very difficult to play), start looking to double-letter words to take advantage of the multiples on your tile rack.
Don’t have an i for igloo? Use an a for agloo, otherwise known as an air hole through the ice made by a seal.
Instead of an alley, use this double-double-lettered word meaning “a tree-lined walkway.”
Rather than beta, use that extra t for the freshwater fish.
A brattice now refers to a heavy curtain or barrier in a mine to help direct air flow, though the medieval meaning was simply ”a temporary partition along a wall.”
The fanciest of all horse training and equestrian events, dressage is the obedience and discipline riding competition, rather than the racing.
To fug is to make something stuffy or odorous, but its adjective form (fuggy) and past and present participles (fugged, fugging) will take care of any extra gs on the board.
Not only will ghyll, which is a deep ravine, utilize a double-letter, but it will help if your tile bar is sorely lacking in vowels.
Graal is an older form of the word grail, but it’s also a technique used in glassblowing.
Don’t have an a for healer? A heeler is a person who puts heels on shoes (as well as an Australian cattle dog).
If you’re having a helluva time getting rid of a few letters, this nonstandard combination word is actually Scrabble-approved.
Innage is the quantity of goods remaining in a container when received after shipment.
To decisively defeat someone or trounce them is to larrup.
Another double-double-letter word, mammee is a species of tropical tree with large red fruit.
A moggy (also spelled moggie) or moggies (plural) is the cat equivalent of a mutt.
A quick word to tack onto some common board letters, an olla is a wide-mouthed pot or jar.
Outtell, outtells, and outelling all refer to speaking out or declaring something openly.
A perron can refer to both large outdoor stairways or the stone platforms of certain columns and edifices.
You’re surely prepared with piggy, piggie, and piggish, but don’t forget piggery, another word for a pigpen.
Score extra points with a well-place q. A quassia is another tropical tree whose bitter bark is sometimes used as a digestive aid or an insecticide.
No, not Scrabble. Scabble means to shape roughly.
A tippet is a covering for the shoulders, or a ceremonial scarf worn by clergy.
A typp (or typps, plural) is a unit of yarn size. It’s an acronym for thousand yards per pound.
The vallum was part of the defensive wall of earth and stone surrounding Roman camps.
While weepy is an adjective for tending to weep, a weepie is a very maudlin movie.
According to the official Scrabble dictionary, welly is an acceptable form of wellie, the British rain boots.
A version of this story ran in 2018; it has been updated for 2023.
Are you a logophile? Do you want to learn unusual words and old-timey slang to make conversation more interesting, or discover fascinating tidbits about the origins of everyday phrases? Then pick up our new book, The Curious Compendium of Wonderful Words: A Miscellany of Obscure Terms, Bizarre Phrases, & Surprising Etymologies, out June 6! You can pre-order your copy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, or Bookshop.org.
Erika Berlin
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