Cheating at scrabble...

[Ganonator]

I ran across an internet site that is the ultimate Scrabble tool - you can check to see if words work, find out if you can 'add-on' to an existing word by finding a pattern (like adding race to car to make racecar) or even typing in the letters you have in your hand with blanks to find the longest possible word.

Why do I bring this up? Not that I do, but have you ever played Yahoo Literari?

(http://www.boulter.com/scrabble)

[Paradox]

i just typed in "a p y m x s e" for letters and it gave me:
17 PYXES
15 PYX
14 SEXY
14 PAXES
14 MAXES
14 EXAMS
13 EXAM
13 APEX
12 PAX
12 MAX
11 AXES
10 SEX
10 SEAMY
10 SAX
10 AXE
09 YAPS
09 YAMS
09 SPAY
09 PYES
09 PYAS
09 PAYS
09 MAYS
09 EX
09 ESPY
09 AX
08 YEP
08 YAP
08 YAM
08 SPY
08 SPAM
08 SAMP
08 PYE
08 PYA
08 PAY
08 PAMS
08 MAY
08 MAPS
08 AMPS
07 YEAS
07 PAM
07 MY
07 MAP
07 EYAS
07 EASY
07 AYES
07 AMP
06 YES
06 YEA
06 SPAE
06 SEAM
06 SAY
06 SAME
06 PEAS
06 PASE
06 MESA
06 MAES
06 AYS
06 AYE
06 APSE
06 APES
05 YE
05 YA
05 SPA
05 SAP
05 PES
05 PEA
05 PAS
05 MAS
05 MAE
05 EMS
05 AY
05 ASP
05 APE
04 PE
04 PA
04 ME
04 MA
04 EM
04 AM
03 SEA
03 SAE
02 ES
02 AS
02 AE

some of those don't even seem like words... "pyxes"? wtf?

[Saffith]

Yep. It's the plural of "pyx," which means a box for keeping Eucharist wafers, minted coins awaiting assay, or a ship's compass in.
Useful word, isn't it?

[Ganonator]

and if gives you 17 points at scrabble!

[Thunderbird]

It's cheating, that's for sure. One thing that site doesn't take into account (and probably can't) is the dictionary that you're using for an ordinary Scrabble game. If a word is challenged, it must be in the dictionary you're using or it's not acceptable.

Though this kind of cheating probably doesn't occur very often in offline Scrabble games.

[DarkDragon]

Yeah... I used to play some online scrabble, until I realized how easy it is for my opponents to cheat. Imposing a time limit reduces the problem somewhat, as does the fact that the cheating aides don't take into account the fact that your word must fit somewhere on the board.

[AlphaDawg]

Very cool. Unfortunately whenever I play Scrabble it's the old-fashioned board game version, so it probably won't help me much.

My favorite semi-Scrabble related quote:

"Remember, xenophobia doesn't benefit anybody unless you're playing high-stakes Scrabble."

- Dennis Miller on Immigration

[SiliconHero]

I can't think fast enough to use a cheat machine like that, so I don't. I wish I had that capacity, though. I could gain some really sick scores. *evil grin*

[MottZilla]

You could easily make a program which you give your letters and search a dictionary of sorts you attach to it and have it return you all the possible matches/combinations.

You could even let you input how many spaces you have.

It'd be a bit harder though, if you wanted to get really advanced.

[Ganonator]

this one does spaces. You insert something like raii?gsnt and you get all of the words that fill the position - like straining. This benefits the person who doesn't think they can fit their words in the scrabble board. Just add a ? to your search, and find that letter that cooresponds.. sad

[Drunken Tiger]

Isnt there a limit on how short the word could be??