English-language Scrabble has two official word lists. Clubs and tournaments in the United States and Canada use the NASPA Word List, known as NWL. Most of the rest of the world uses Collins Scrabble Words, often just called Collins. A word that is fine in one can be challenged off the board in the other, so it pays to know which list your game uses and how the two differ.
This guide compares the two lists this site uses: NWL2023 and the SOWPODS edition of Collins. Every count below covers words of 2 to 15 letters.
The numbers
The overlap is large: 67% of all the words appear in both lists. But Collins is much bigger. It has 80,660 words that NWL does not, while NWL has only 9,509 words that Collins lacks. In practice that means almost every NWL word is safe in a Collins game, but a Collins player moving to NWL has to unlearn thousands of words.
A short history of the two lists
For decades, Scrabble players in North America and in Britain used different reference books. North American players used the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary and later a tournament list that added longer words; British players used Official Scrabble Words. In the 1990s, international events began combining the two, and the merged list became known as SOWPODS, a name made by mixing the letters of the two abbreviations, OSW and OSPD.
That merged list grew into Collins Scrabble Words, now published by Collins and used in most countries. In North America, the NASPA Word List replaced the older Tournament Word List, and NWL2023 is the current edition. Because Collins started as the combination of both traditions, it naturally contains nearly every North American word plus many more.
Why Collins is so much bigger
Collins draws on English as it is used around the world: British, Australian, New Zealand, South African and Indian English, plus Scots words, older literary words and a long tail of technical terms. NWL sticks more closely to North American dictionaries. Many Collins-only words are perfectly real but rarely used outside one region or field.
A common myth is that British spellings are Collins-only. They are not: COLOUR, CENTRE, THEATRE, REALISE, GREY, CHEQUE are all valid in NWL too. The differences are mostly in rarer words, not in everyday spelling.
Where the lists differ, by length
The differences are spread across every word length, but they grow with it. Long words make up most of the gap, because Collins includes many more technical, scientific and regional terms.
- Collins only
- NWL only
For everyday play the short words matter most, because they are the ones you use every turn. That is where the next two sections focus.
Two-letter words
Two-letter words are the most important words in Scrabble: they let you play alongside other words and score in two directions. Collins allows 124 two-letter words and NWL allows 107.
If you switch between lists, the Collins-only two-letter words are the ones to learn or forget first. Words like CH, DI, EA, EE will be challenged in an NWL game.
Three-letter words
The gap widens at three letters: Collins has 1,292 three-letter words and NWL has 1,085. Three-letter words are the next most useful group after the twos, so tournament players learn the full list for their dictionary.
High-scoring short words in only one list
The differences matter most when they involve the expensive tiles. Short words with a J, Q, X or Z are how players score big with those letters, and here the two lists part ways.
| Collins only | Points | NWL only | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZZZS | 31 | BAZZ | 24 |
| HIZZ | 25 | VAXX | 21 |
| MEZZ | 24 | DOXX | 19 |
| MIZZ | 24 | CAZH | 18 |
| MOZZ | 24 | ZUKE | 17 |
| MUZZ | 24 | WUZ | 15 |
| POZZ | 24 | YEZ | 15 |
| GIZZ | 23 | CINQ | 15 |
A Collins player who moves to NWL loses these Collins-only plays, and an NWL player moving to Collins gains far more options than they give up. If you play both, these short high-scorers are the first differences worth learning, right after the two-letter words.
What changes in a real game
Because Collins has more words, Collins games tend to be more open and higher scoring. There are more two- and three-letter words to play alongside other words, more ways to use a Q or a Z, and more seven-letter bingos for any given rack. NWL games are a little tighter, and good defence, such as closing triple word lanes, pays off more.
The difference also shows up in challenges. Collins players face more unfamiliar words, so they challenge less often and rely more on knowing the list. NWL players can usually tell a phoney from a real word more easily, simply because there are fewer real words to know.
Words that look like names
Neither list allows names, places or brands. But some valid words are spelled like names. YORK is valid in Collins, JAMES is valid in Collins, CONNOR is valid in NWL: YORK is a cricket term, to bowl a batter out with a yorker; JAMES is an old word for a crowbar; CONNOR is a kind of fish. If a word looks like a name, check it before you challenge.
New words in NWL2023
Both lists add words as English changes. NWL2023 includes recent words such as OK, COVID, SELFIE, ZEN, HASHTAG, BITCOIN, EMOJI, VLOG, which are not in the older Collins edition this site uses. Newer Collins editions have added recent words too, so if you play Collins, check the edition your club or app uses.
NASPA also removed slurs from its list in 2020, so some offensive words that older lists include are no longer valid in North American play.
Offensive words and family games
Both lists include some words that many people would rather not see on a family board, because the lists record words that exist rather than words that are polite. NASPA's 2020 change removed slurs from NWL, but mild insults and crude words remain in both lists. For home and school play in North America, the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary leaves out offensive words entirely, which makes it a better fit for younger players.
On this site, offensive words still appear in the full A to Z lists, so the lists stay complete for players who need them, but they are never used as examples, highlights or in any of our articles.
Where ENABLE fits
ENABLE is a free, public-domain word list that many word apps were built on. It is not an official tournament list. It has 168,551 words: 168,139 of them are also in NWL, and 412 are not. If you play a phone game rather than a club game, ENABLE is often the closest match, but each app has its own list, so the game's own dictionary always has the final word.
How players handle two lists
Most tournament players choose one list and learn it thoroughly. Some play both, and they learn the differences as a separate set, starting with the two- and three-letter words because those come up in almost every game. Online play makes this easier: most apps let you pick the dictionary before a game, and the app checks every word for you.
For a casual player the simplest approach is to learn the shared words first. Almost everything you will want to play in an everyday game is in both lists, so the differences only start to matter once you are learning short words and bingos seriously.
Questions players ask
Is Collins harder than NWL?
It has more words, so games tend to be higher scoring and there are more ways to use awkward tiles. Whether that makes it harder depends on how many words you know.
Can I use Collins words in a North American game?
Only if everyone agrees beforehand. In an NWL game, a Collins-only word can be challenged off the board.
Why does a word I know show as invalid?
Proper nouns, abbreviations and words that need a hyphen or apostrophe are not allowed in either list. Some very new words may also be missing from the edition you are checking.
Switching lists: a learning plan
- Learn the two-letter words that differ, listed above. They matter most.
- Learn the three-letter differences next, starting with words that use high-value tiles.
- Play a few games in the new list with word checking turned on, and note every word that surprises you.
- Use the badges on our word pages to check any word before you rely on it.
Which one should you use?
- North American clubs and tournaments, and the US and Canadian editions of most apps: NWL.
- Clubs and tournaments everywhere else, and international events: Collins.
- Casual games at home: agree on a list before you start. Collins is the generous choice; NWL is the stricter one.
- Phone games: use the game's own dictionary. Our ENABLE results are a good guide.
How to check a word
Checking takes a few seconds and can save a whole turn. Every word page on Word Puzzle Answers shows three badges, NWL, Collins and ENABLE, with a tick or a cross for each. The score calculator shows the same badges for any word you type, and the Scrabble word finder only shows words that NWL or Collins accepts. Every word list on the site also shows which dictionaries accept each high-scoring word, so you can see at a glance whether a play is safe in your game.
If you play online, the app will usually check words for you as you play. In a face-to-face game, agree on one list and one way to check before the first tile goes down, and the arguments disappear.
Our Collins data is the SOWPODS edition. A handful of words added in newer Collins editions may be missing, and very few have been removed, so treat a Collins "not valid" as a strong hint rather than the final answer.