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The NASPA School Word List (2020 edition), NSWL2020, was edited by the NASPA Dictionary Committee in 2020 and becomes effective on January 6, 2021. It replaces NSWL2018.
Like its predecessors, it consists of those words that are acceptable in the regular NASPA Word List (NWL) that are considered appropriate for school use.
NASPA members may download the word list and related files through Member Services in the following format:
It will be available to NASPA members for electronic study and tournament adjudication purposes in the NASPA Zyzzyva program, starting with version 3.2.3.
School SCRABBLE competitors may apply for a complimentary season membership.
This edition deletes 42 words - all 9 letters or longer in length - from the NSWL:
A complete list of the deleted words is available for our adult members in Member Services.
To view a list of differences between specific editions of NSWL and NWL, use Zyzzyva to search for words that are in one lexicon but not the other. There are 591 words that are in NWL2020 but not in NSWL2020; all words in NSWL2020 are in NWL2020.
. That includes 28 that are now classed as “offensive slurs” (thus also out of NWL), and 14 that are merely “offensive”.
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