When you connect to this website, you send your IP address and sometimes some cookies. You may also give us personal identifying information, such as your name and contact information. All this data is used to securely provide you with the services that you request. We encourage you to review our privacy policy to make sure that you understand how your data is managed, and to contact us if you have any questions. View Privacy Policy

Collins links

From NASPAWiki
Revision as of 14:15, 22 August 2025 by CM000457 (talk | contribs) (Update to CSW24, update links)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

You are viewing a condensed mobile version of this NASPA webpage.
Switch to full version.

This page provides links related Collins, and is part of our introduction to Collins (SOWPODS) in North America. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica as NWL and CSW respectively.

Since once can find much material online by web-searching "Scrabble", "Collins", etc., we limit the selection to the most useful links for the player new to CSW.

These links are up-to-date for CSW24 unless otherwise noted.

General

Scrabble General worldwide site for Scrabble
NASPA North American Scrabble Players Association
WESPA World English-Language Scrabble Players Association

Books & Playing Guides

Some of these are not up-to-date for the current CSW, but the effect is minor

Breaking the Game Cutting-edge Scrabble strategy, puzzles, etc., from Kenji Matsumoto
Word His book on basic Scrabble strategy, CSW edition
Scrabble Solved Sequel on advanced strategy, CSW edition
101 Ways to Win at Scrabble Recent British book by Barry Grossman
Scrabble Secrets Another one, by 1993 world champion Mark Nyman
How to Play Scrabble Like Matthew O'Connor Advanced Collins strategy

Software

Quackle Widely used software that can be configured for Scrabble
NASPA Zyzzyva Widely used word study software
Collins Zyzzyva Version that does not contain NWL, but has more comprehensive definitions for CSW, spanning 2-15 letters
Woogles Online play, including CSW, human & computer players, live games, chat, tournaments, etc.
Aerolith Online game to practice anagramming, in NWL or CSW
Tournament Shell Tournament directing software that can do NWL or CSW
Elise Another word game playing software
WHAT Another word finding software

Tournaments & Ratings

NASPA tournament calendar Official calendar of rated NASPA tournaments, both NWL and CSW
Cross-Tables Tournaments, ratings, results, etc. Front page has good visual list with obvious icons showing that a tournament is NWL or CSW
NASPA SOWPODS ratings Description of the CSW ratings, with results
WESPA ratings World ratings

Word Lists

NOTE: The two Collins cheat sheets need updating from CSW21 to CSW24 but are otherwise valid

Collins Cheat Sheet Part 1 Useful CSW-only words for handy reference: 2s, 3s, high probability bingos, the 52 2-8 letter words only in NWL, etc.
Collins Cheat Sheet Part 2 More useful words: hooks of 2s, all the 4s
Collins Official Scrabble Words Official CSW24 book
Collins Ultimate Scrabble Dictionary and Wordlist 2-15 letter words, with definitions for the 2s-9s
ABSP words by category Extensive sets of lists by many definition-based categories (languages, food, etc.) Select the "Words" dropdown menu from the website's top menu bar.
Winning Words Set of books with useful categories by part of speech, etc.
Anagram Cartoons Book Anagrams + cartoons valid in NWL and CSW

YouTube

NASPA Scrabble NWL and CSW tournament games with commentary
Let's Play Scrabble Similar to NASPA, with other tournaments
Will Anderson Wide variety of Scrabble content from Will Anderson, NWL and CSW
Dweebovision Videos of CSW games with clear and insightful commentary from David Webb

Etc.

This list is far from complete, for example, there is a lot of other online video content like twitch.tv.

Collins Scrabble Players Online pro-CSW in North America community
Word Buff Lots of word-related material
Learning Scrabble Words Blog entry on learning Collins words

Please direct comments about this page to its author, Nick Ball.