The 25 Most Impressive Scrabble Words Played By Middle and High Schoolers

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Last weekend, Hasbro crowned the winners of the North American School Scrabble Championship, a Scrabble tournament featuring 105 students from across the continent ranging in age groups between 3rd grade and 12th grade. 110 student players competed in the tournament with games lasting 55 minutes each. These kids must be acing their english classes because the turnout resulted in some truly impressive wordplay, and Hasbro sent Gizmodo the list of winning words and their highest resulting scores, as well as some genuinely extraordinary strings of letters.

All definitions are directly quoted from Dictionary.com, except in certain instances, which are denoted by a lack of quotation marks.

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Charlock

Noun: “a wild mustard, Brassica kaber, having lobed, ovate leaves and clusters of small, yellow flowers, often troublesome as a weed in grainfields.”

“Charlock” was played by 8th-grader Eli Wool and 7th-grader George Mickelsen from JFK Middle School in Florence, Massachusetts for a whopping 194 points. Wool and Mickelsen played the word on a triple-triple, meaning it straddled two Triple Word Score tiles, hence the lofty score. The duo also used two blank tiles for the C and O. The kicker here is that the two tweens played the word without even knowing it was a real world at all.

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Atelier

Noun: “a workshop or studio, especially of an artist, artisan, or designer.”

Nathanael Campos, a 7th-grader at Scotts Ridge Middle School in Ridgefield, Connecticut and Walden Giezentanner, an 8th-grader at Hixson Middle School in Webster Groves, Missouri, played the word “atelier” for a big 89 points.

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Guineas

Noun, plural: “a former money of account of the United Kingdom, equal to 21 shillings: still often used in quoting fees or prices.”

12th-grader Ruth Li, a student at Blood Collegiate Institute in Toronto, played “guineas” for 86 points.

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Naivest

Adjective: the most naive.

Naivest scored Nathanael Campos and Walden Giezentanner 77 points.

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Ocarinas

Noun, plural: “a simple musical wind instrument shaped somewhat like an elongated egg with a mouthpiece and finger holes.”

James Donnelly, a 12th-grader at Hingham High School in Hingham, Massachusetts, played “ocarinas” for 63 points.

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Oxter

Noun: “the armpit.”

Along with “ocarinas,” Donnelly played “oxter” for 40 points.

Scores for the remaining words were not reported by Hasbro.

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Remoras

Noun, plural: “any of several fishes of the family Echeneididae, having on the top of the head a sucking disk by which they can attach themselves to sharks, turtles, ships, and other moving objects.”

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Nth

Adjective: “being the last in a series of infinitely decreasing or increasing values, amounts, etc.” For example, the nth degree.

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Beastie

Noun: “a small animal, especially one toward which affection is felt.”

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Fogey

Noun, a variant of “fogy”: “an excessively conservative or old-fashioned person, especially one who is intellectually dull (usually preceded by old).”

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Zaire

Noun: “a paper money and monetary unit of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, equal to 100 makuta.”

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Qadi

Noun: “a judge in a Muslim community, whose decisions are based on Islamic religious law.”

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Roque

Noun: “a form of croquet played on a clay or hard-surface court surrounded by a low wall off which the balls may be played.”

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Maturity

Noun: “the state of being mature; ripeness” or “full development; perfected condition.”

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Sinuate

Adjective: “bent in and out; winding; sinuous.”

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Undulate

Verb: “to move with a sinuous or wavelike motion; display a smooth rising-and-falling or side-to-side alternation of movement.”

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Vendees

Noun, plural: “the person to whom a thing is sold.”

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Embower

Verb: “to shelter in or as in a bower; cover or surround with foliage.”

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Biometry

Noun: “the calculation of the probable duration of human life.”

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Autopen

Noun: “a machine that can automatically reproduce or imitate an autograph or personal signature with any type of pen, pencil, or marker.”

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Acajou

Noun: “the wood of any of several species of mahogany” or “the cashew tree, its nuts, or resin.”

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Supines

Noun, plural: “(in Latin) a noun form derived from verbs, appearing only in the accusative and the dative-ablative, as dictū in mirābile dictū, “wonderful to say.”

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Negroni

Noun: “a cocktail made from sweet vermouth, gin, and bitters.”

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Elytron

Noun: “one of the pair of hardened forewings of certain insects, as beetles, forming a protective covering for the posterior or flight wings.”

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Storax

Noun: “a solid resin with a vanillalike odor, obtained from a small tree, Styrax officinalis: formerly used in medicine and perfumery.”

The 25 Most Impressive Scrabble Words Played By Middle and High Schoolers

Hasbro crowned the winners of the North American School Scrabble Championship and these kids played words you've probably never even heard of.

Charlock

Charlock

Atelier

Atelier

Guineas

Guineas

Naivest

Naivest

Ocarinas

Ocarinas

Oxter

Oxter

Remoras

Remoras

Nth

Nth

Beastie

Beastie

Fogey

Fogey

Zaire

Zaire

Qadi

Qadi

Roque

Roque

Maturity

Maturity

Sinuate

Sinuate

Undulate

Undulate

Vendees

Vendees

Embower

Embower

Biometry

Biometry

Autopen

Autopen

Acajou

Acajou

Supines

Supines

Negroni

Negroni

Elytron

Elytron

Storax

Storax