Dictionaries & Sources
Compiled and verified by The DoUnscrambler Editorial Team · Dictionary last updated
TWL — TWL (TWL06 / OTCWL)
~178,000 words- Maintainer
- NASPA (North American Scrabble Players Association)
- Region / games
- United States, Canada, Thailand
- Reference
- Source
The word list used in North American tournament Scrabble. Excludes many British spellings.
SOWPODS — SOWPODS (Collins)
~279,000 words- Maintainer
- Collins / WESPA
- Region / games
- United Kingdom, Australia, Europe, rest of world
- Reference
- Source
The international tournament list. A strict superset of TWL — every TWL word is valid here.
ENABLE — ENABLE
~172,000 words- Maintainer
- Public domain (Alan Beale)
- Region / games
- Casual word games, Words With Friends heritage
- Reference
- Source
A public-domain list widely used by casual word games including early Words With Friends.
How we compile the combined list
We ingest each source list separately, normalise casing and strip diacritics and punctuation, then merge into a single table where every entry records which of the three lexicons it belongs to. That is why a word page can tell you a word is valid in SOWPODS but not TWL, instead of a single unqualified "valid".
Each entry is stored with its length, its alphabetical signature, its 26 per-letter counts, and its precomputed Scrabble and Words With Friends scores. The methodology page explains how those fields are used at query time.
Reporting an error
Lexicons change and merges introduce mistakes. If you find a word missing, mis-scored, or attributed to the wrong dictionary, tell us on the contact page and include the word plus the dictionary you expected. Confirmed fixes ship in the next refresh.
Frequently asked
What is the difference between TWL and SOWPODS?
TWL (the Tournament Word List, also called OTCWL) is the official Scrabble lexicon for the United States, Canada and Thailand. SOWPODS, now published as Collins Scrabble Words, is used everywhere else and is a superset: it contains roughly 280,000 words against TWL’s 190,000, including many British spellings and slang terms that TWL omits.
Which dictionary does Words With Friends use?
Words With Friends uses its own proprietary lexicon, the ENABLE list with modifications. It is more permissive than TWL for informal words but does not include everything in SOWPODS. We flag ENABLE validity separately on every word page for that reason.
Why is a word valid on your site but rejected in my game?
Almost always a dictionary mismatch. A word valid in SOWPODS will be rejected by a North American tournament game running TWL. Check the dictionary badges on the word page — we list which of the three lexicons each word appears in rather than giving a single yes or no.
How often is the dictionary updated?
We review the source lists on a rolling basis and republish in bulk. The current compiled dictionary was last refreshed on 2026-07-28, and that date is stamped on every word page.