What word lists does MyAnagramSolver use?

MyAnagramSolver uses three word list sources: the TWL (Tournament Word List, the official word list for North American Scrabble competitions), Collins Scrabble Words (the international Scrabble standard, used in the UK, Australia, South Africa, and most non-North American tournaments), and a standard British English vocabulary supplement. After merging and deduplication, the combined database contains 74,872 unique words.

The TWL (Tournament Word List) is the official word list for competitive Scrabble in North America. It is published by Hasbro in collaboration with the North American Scrabble Players Association. Words in the TWL are considered valid for tournament play in the United States and Canada. The TWL is more conservative than Collins Scrabble Words, excluding many archaic, technical, and international English terms.

What does the Collins Scrabble Words list contain?

Collins Scrabble Words (CSW), formerly known as SOWPODS, is the international Scrabble word list used in tournaments outside North America. It contains significantly more words than the TWL and includes British English vocabulary, archaic forms, technical terms, and words from English varieties spoken in other parts of the world. The Collins list is published by Collins dictionaries.

Are all 74,872 words valid in Scrabble?

Not all 74,872 words are valid in every Scrabble jurisdiction. Words from the TWL are valid in North American tournaments. Words from Collins Scrabble Words are valid in international tournaments. Some words appear in both lists. Some words (from the British English vocabulary supplement) may be valid in dictionary lookups but not accepted in any Scrabble tournament format. The database is designed to be comprehensive rather than restrictive.

Does the database include proper nouns?

Generally no, but some proper nouns appear in the database because they appear in one or more of the source word lists. Examples include some abbreviated forms (BBQ, IQ) that are listed in competitive word game references. The database does not specifically include general proper nouns like personal names or countries — those exclusions are standard in all three source word lists.

How does the database handle American vs British spellings?

Both American and British spellings appear where each is valid in its respective source list. COLOR (American) and COLOUR (British) both appear. ORGANIZE and ORGANISE both appear. This dual-spelling coverage means the database is useful for both American English and British English players. The British English vocabulary supplement adds words and spellings not covered by the Scrabble-focused sources.

How often is the database updated?

The database is updated when new words enter established usage across the source word lists or when corrections are identified. Each update changes the implementation fingerprint. The current fingerprint is 916f47949b41, generated on 2026-07-27. All statistics pages display the fingerprint and generation date so readers can determine whether they are viewing current data.

Does MyAnagramSolver use Wikipedia or web-crawled data?

No. The database is compiled exclusively from the three sources described above: TWL, Collins Scrabble Words, and British English vocabulary. No Wikipedia data, web-crawled text, social media vocabulary, or informal word sources are included. This keeps the database focused on words with established dictionary or word-game recognition.

Can I download the word database?

The word database is delivered as a JavaScript file (wordlist.js) to every visitor's browser as part of normal tool operation. It is viewable as plain text in any browser's developer tools. However, the database itself is derived from word lists that carry their own usage terms. Users who access the wordlist.js file do so subject to this site's terms of use, which prohibit redistribution or commercial exploitation of the word list data.

How are words scored in the database?

Scrabble base scores are computed using the standard North American tile values: A=1, E=1, I=1, O=1, U=1, L=1, N=1, R=1, S=1, T=1, D=2, G=2, B=3, C=3, M=3, P=3, F=4, H=4, V=4, W=4, Y=4, K=5, J=8, X=8, Q=10, Z=10. Blank tiles score 0. No board multipliers are included in stored scores — multipliers depend on board position and are computed separately by the score calculator tool.

MyAnagramSolver

Data Sources
Complete Disclosure of Word Lists Used

MyAnagramSolver uses three established word list sources: the TWL (North American Scrabble), Collins Scrabble Words (international), and a British English vocabulary supplement. Combined and deduplicated: 74,872 words. No web crawling. No invented entries.

TWL (North American) Collins Scrabble Words British English 74,872 Words Total

Source 1 — TWL (Tournament Word List)

The TWL is the official word list for competitive Scrabble in the United States and Canada. It is maintained by the North American Scrabble Players Association and published by Hasbro. Words must meet established dictionary criteria to be added to the TWL. The list is reviewed periodically; new words are added when they gain sufficient dictionary recognition, and inappropriate words are occasionally removed.

TWL words represent the core of North American Scrabble play. Any word valid for tournament Scrabble in the US and Canada is in the TWL. The list emphasises well-established English vocabulary over archaic, technical, or regional forms — it is more conservative than Collins Scrabble Words.

Source 2 — Collins Scrabble Words (CSW)

Collins Scrabble Words, previously called SOWPODS, is the international Scrabble word list used in tournaments outside North America. It is published by Collins dictionaries and maintained by the World English-language Scrabble Players' Association. CSW contains substantially more words than the TWL — it includes British English vocabulary, archaic forms, technical terms, and words from other English varieties.

Including Collins Scrabble Words ensures the database is genuinely useful for players in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and other countries that use CSW in tournament play. Words valid only under Collins rules are part of the database and will appear in tool results, which is the expected behaviour for an internationally-oriented word tool.

Source 3 — British English Vocabulary Supplement

A standard British English vocabulary supplement ensures that common British English words and spellings are available even where they may not appear in the Scrabble-specific sources. British English and American English differ in spelling (COLOUR/COLOR, PROGRAMME/PROGRAM, THEATRE/THEATER), vocabulary (FORTNIGHT, LORRY, BISCUIT in their British senses), and word formation patterns. Both sets of spellings appear in the combined database.

Database Composition — Key Facts

74,872

Total words after merging three sources

74,872 unique words after deduplication. Where a word appears in multiple source lists, it appears once in the database. Where American and British spellings differ, both appear as separate entries if both are valid in their respective sources.

2–15

Word length range in the database

Words range from 2 letters (AA, AB, AD, AE, AG, AH, AI, AL, AM, AN, AR, AS, AT, AW, AX, AY and others) to 15 letters (INTERCOLLEGIATE, MISAPPREHENDING, STRAIGHTFORWARD, DECONTAMINATING, DISAPPOINTMENTS). Average length: 8.11 characters.

2 + 3

Letter range — two 10-point letters, three 8-point letters

The database contains two 10-point Scrabble tiles (Q and Z) and three 8-point tiles (J and X). High-value letters are naturally rare in the database — Q appears in 1,196 words (0.20% of all letter positions), making it the rarest standard letter across the full vocabulary.

916f47949b41

Current implementation fingerprint

The implementation fingerprint is computed from the database content. It changes whenever the word list changes. All statistics on this site were generated from the database version identified by fingerprint 916f47949b41, generated on 2026-07-27.

What Is Not Included

The database does not include: invented or fictional words, proprietary brand names, web-crawled vocabulary, social media neologisms, or words from any language other than English. General proper nouns (names of people and most place names) are excluded by the source word lists and therefore not present in the database.

Statistics on this site describe the database as described above. They do not represent claims about the English language as a whole or about any other word database. Comparisons between statistics on this site and statistics from other sources (Wikipedia, academic corpora, other dictionary databases) should account for these differences in scope and composition.

Source List Differences — Why They Matter

The decision to combine TWL and Collins Scrabble Words rather than using either alone has significant implications for tool results. A tool using only TWL would exclude approximately 100,000 words valid in international Scrabble tournaments. A tool using only Collins would include words that North American tournament players cannot use. The combined approach serves both audiences: North American players see every word they can legally play, and international players see every word valid in their jurisdiction.

For users not playing competitive Scrabble — word puzzle enthusiasts, writers, crossword solvers, vocabulary learners — the combined database simply provides the most comprehensive coverage of established English words. A word that appears in Collins but not TWL is still a valid English word; excluding it would make the tool less useful for general word exploration without a compensating benefit.

The British English vocabulary supplement serves a slightly different purpose. It ensures that common British English words with Scrabble-specific exclusions (words that might not appear in Scrabble lists for historical or administrative reasons) remain findable. It also ensures that British spellings appear for words where the American and British forms differ, making the tool genuinely bilingual in terms of English variety.

From a research perspective, combining three sources introduces complexity in citation. When a published statistic says the database contains 74,872 words, that count reflects the combined, deduplicated union of three sources as of the fingerprint date. Comparisons with statistics from other word databases should account for the different source composition. A word count from a TWL-only tool will be lower; a count from a Collins-only tool will be higher; a count from a general dictionary may differ in both directions depending on the dictionary's scope.

Source Verification — How to Cross-Check

Any word's presence or absence in the database can be cross-checked via the anagram solver in Exact mode: enter the word's letters in the exact order and select Exact mode. If the word appears in results, it is in the database. If it does not appear, it is absent. This verification method uses the live database directly rather than any intermediate lookup. For words with accented characters or unusual spellings, entering the word exactly (including accents) is necessary for an accurate check.

Deduplication Process — How the Three Sources Merge

When words from TWL, Collins, and the British supplement are combined, duplicates are removed by case-insensitive string comparison. If the word ANAGRAM appears in all three sources, it appears once in the database. If COLOR appears in TWL and the British supplement, it appears once. If COLOUR appears only in Collins and the British supplement, it appears once. The final count of 74,872 reflects unique words only, with no double-counting of words shared across multiple sources.

Data SourcesComplete Disclosure of Word Lists Used