Scrabble is a popular board game where players place words crossword fashion to score points. Scrabble has been around for a long time and has now been officially translated into over 30 languages, and is sold in approximately 121 countries worldwide.
After changing hands many times, the game finally found itself in the hands of Hasbro in North America, with Mattel being the supplier for the game in the rest of the world. The Scrabble dictionary is constantly updating, too, with the most recent Lexicon changes coming in 2018. Many dictionaries have been used over time, although now the dictionary used in the English versions of the game is the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (OPSD).
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Scrabble has been the inspiration for many word games, especially in digital format, such as Lexulous and the ever-popular Words With Friends. Although simple on the surface, there are more than 4,000 Scrabble clubs globally, with a tournament and ranking system available for competitive players. Scrabble is a fun word game and there are many benefits of playing but if you find it too challenging you could use a word finder to learn new words and improve your play.
This quiz will test your Scrabble knowledge, covering some rules of the game, some history, and other fun trivia. It has also been created around the standard English version of the game, based around North America unless stated otherwise.
Difficulty Level : Easy
(1) The person who wins in Scrabble is the person who:
Scores the most points in total
Plays the longest word
Uses their tiles first
Plays the word with the most points
Scoring the most points gets you the win in scrabble. Any unplayed letters will be reduced from a player's score, and if the player has no unplayed letters, the sum of their opponent's unplayed letters will be added to their score.
(2) How many points is the 'X' tile worth?
Twelve points
Eight points
Four points
One point
The 'X' tile is currently worth eight points, up from six in the original version of Scrabble, first developed in 1938. The changes came after players' criticism of the lexicon, with some words and letters becoming more or less common.
(3) How many tiles does the rack hold?
Eight tiles
Seven tiles
Six tiles
Five tiles
The tile rack in Scrabble holds seven tiles. If players play all seven tiles in a single turn, they will score a BINGO and be awarded bonus points. It's interesting to note that in the development of Lexulous, a popular game built on the idea of Scrabble, they changed the tile rack to eight tiles to avoid copyright infringements.
(4) What is the maximum amount of players in each game?
Four players
Three players
Two players
One player
Scrabble is a game designed for up to four players, with a minimum of two. However, almost all competitive games, such as in tournaments, are played with just two players to ensure fair play.
(5) As of 2024, who owns the rights to Scrabble in the United States?
Mattel
Atari
Hasbro
Sony
In the United States and Canada, Hasbro has owned the rights to Scrabble since 1989 through the acquisition of Coleco Industries. That said, in most parts of the world, Mattel holds the trademark.
(6) The frequency of which letter tile had to be reduced to make the game more playable?
E
A
O
S
As many words can be pluralized with the letter S, it was deemed a letter that was too versatile for its current distribution, and its frequency had to be lowered.
(7) What letter appears the most in Scrabble?
V
A
E
G
Appearing a whopping twelve times, the 'E' tile is the most common letter in the game, as well as being the most frequently used letter in the English language.
(8) How many blank tiles are in the game?
Two
Three
Four
Five
There are two blank tiles in Scrabble, which are prized for their excellent versatility, helping players create long words, especially in the pursuit of a BINGO. The tile itself, however, is worth zero points.
Difficulty Level: Medium
(9) How many tiles are in the tile bag?
95
100
110
124
There are 100 tiles in the tile bag at the beginning of the game, 98 of which have scoring tiles with letters and point values and two blank tiles.
(10) How many points are awarded for a BINGO?
30 points
40 points
50 points
60 points
BINGO! You will score fifty points for playing all seven tiles in one turn in a game of Scrabble. This is an important aspect of the game and is part of many competitive strategies. The blank tiles can significantly aid players in landing bingos.
(11) An unofficial Facebook game brought Scrabble to the online masses. What was it originally called?
Scrabble Go
Scrabulous
Lexulous
WordBird
In 2005, Scrabulous was available to the world on a dedicated website, although it didn't reach peak heights of popularity until it was available on Facebook in 2007. The game was later removed for copyright infringement after a complaint in 2008.
(12) How many squares are on the scrabble board?
225
200
150
175
A 15x15 grid makes up a game board totaling 225 squares, in which players start from the middle square. The board also contains premium squares, including 'triple word score,' 'double word score,' 'triple letter score,' and 'double letter score' squares.
(13) How many 'triple word score' tiles are on the board?
Six
Eight
Ten
Twelve
There are eight 'triple word score' premium squares colored in dark red, which, as the name suggests, triples the point value of all letters played in the word. This effect only occurs on the initial coverage of the square and won't triple any future words that contain the letter on the square.
(14) Who developed Scrabble?
Coleco Industries
Julius Scrabble
Alfred Butts
Lizzie Maggie
Alfred Butts began developing what is now known as Scrabble in 1931 after the Great Depression left him without work. Butts put much time and consideration into the game, especially the distribution and point value of each letter in the bag. It is said that Butts used The New Yorker's front page to give distribution weight to each letter.
(15) How many vowel tiles are there in total?
56
50
46
42
There are 42 vowel tiles in the game, giving players an average of 2.92 vowels in each seven tile rack. Players will also find 56 consonant tiles and two blanks for a total of 100 tiles.
(16) In what year was the Scrabble brand officially trademarked?
1948
1950
1954
1958
Developer Alfred Butts initially had the idea for Scrabble in 1931, after the then out-of-work architect had been studying board games and worked out that there was a gap in the market for a competitive word game. After years of painstaking development, the Scrabble brand was finally trademarked in 1948.
Difficulty Level: Hard
(17) The Scrabble dictionary was updated in 2018. How many new words were added?
200
300
500
800
Scrabble's dictionary is constantly evolving, and in 2018, players welcomed 300 new words such as 'OK' and 'ew' into the game.
(18) How many points is the word 'QUIZ' worth, considering no premium square bonuses?
24
22
20
18
The word quiz is made up of 'Q,' worth ten points, 'U,' worth one point, 'I,' worth one point, and 'Z,' worth ten points, for a total of 22 points.
(19) Which retail chain heavily promoted scrabble and is partly credited to its success?
Walmart
JCPenny
Macy's
Target
In the 1950s, the president of Macy's, Jack Strauss, first played the game while on vacation and decided he would order some for his stores. A year later, the game was a 'must-have' and has gone on to sell over 150 million copies worldwide!
(20) In which year did Scrabble's national daytime TV show first air?
1982
1984
1990
1995
The show first aired in 1984 after Exposure Unlimited managed to convince the owners of Scrabble to license them to produce a daytime TV game show. The show first ran from July 2nd, 1984, until March 23rd, 1990.