Is playing words backwards possible in Scrabble?
Answers
Technically, each player should follow the standard crossword puzzle rules in the scrabble game, which means you cannot play backward words. Just in one case, you can play words upward or backward, and it’s when the backward or upward spelling counts as a word and the spelling is correct too. Otherwise, it’s not allowed to use this move.
Since people read English words from left to right or top to bottom, most words spelled backward are not English words. In a sentence, if I were to say “ssorca,” it would sound like nonsense, but it is just the same word written backward. Playing it with downward words doesn’t sound right because words don’t show up in the dictionary, except for palindromes, of course. However, this is just a game, and as the rules say, the players can agree on a dictionary. The players can also agree to allow backward words.
It’s fine as long as the backward form is an accurate word with a definition in the dictionary as well. Obviously, playing a term that doesn’t make sense is off-limits. A word like “Live” is acceptable because it makes “Evil” backward, but that is definitely not the case for all terms.
On Tuesday, toy and game company Mattel revealed plans to release a new version of Scrabble in Britain. That version will be unveiled in the next few months, letting celebrity names and other nouns garner points. Other changes may hit diehard fans of the game as even more radical: players will spell words backward and play words unconnected to any other words on the board.
Hasbro, owner of the Scrabble game in North America, said the new edition would not be lapping up on these shores, so the Scrabble purists in the United States and Canada have nothing to fear.
According to John D. Williams Jr., executive director of the National Scrabble Association and the official spokesman for the game, “The rules of Scrabble as you and I and 50 million Americans know will not change. Also, the new version will not be available in the United States or Canada.”
Since people read English words from left to right or top to bottom, most words spelled backward are not English words. In a sentence, if I were to say “ssorca,” it would sound like nonsense, but it is just the same word written backward. Playing it with downward words doesn’t sound right because words don’t show up in the dictionary, except for palindromes, of course. However, this is just a game, and as the rules say, the players can agree on a dictionary. The players can also agree to allow backward words.
