For Defector, in a piece republished from his newsletter, Unabridged, Stefan Fatsis looks at the history of Scrabble source dictionaries, how words get added over time, and how confusion over the validity of the word JAKER made the difference in a key match between two high schoolers at the 2025 North American School Scrabble Championship.
But I’d never seen anything like what happened during Round 9 of the high-school division at the 2025 tournament. It had nothing to do with the ability of the players—the top two seeds, classmates and pals, regulars on the tournament Scrabble circuit, and great kids, too. Instead, it reflected some uncomfortable realities about humans and words: the dysfunction that defines the small community of competitive Scrabble players in North America, to which I’ve devoted a big chunk of my life for more than a quarter-century, and the debate, rancor, misunderstanding, and confusion around what constitutes a word, and who, ultimately, gets to decide.
More picks about Scrabble
From TED To PERNOCTATED, Scrabble’s Best Player Knows No Limits
“Nigel is a reminder of the unknown limits of human performance and the mysteries of the human mind.”
Scrabble, Anonymous
“Somehow, doing it with other people took the stain away, made it feel fun instead of abject.”
On the Insanity of Being a Scrabble Enthusiast
“Oliver Roeder navigates the highs and lows of his stint as a competitive player.”
