Word lists explained: ENABLE, NWL and CSW

A word game or word tool is only as good as the list of words it checks against. Different lists include different words, which is why an unscrambler, a dictionary and a game can sometimes disagree about whether something is a word.

Why different lists exist

A general dictionary tries to describe the language. A game word list tries to settle disputes: it is a fixed list that says which strings are allowed in play. Game lists include inflected forms (plurals and verb forms), exclude words that need capital letters or hyphens, and may include very rare words that appear in long dictionaries.

ENABLE

ENABLE stands for Enhanced North American Benchmark Lexicon. It is a free word list that is in the public domain, which means anyone can use it. It was created for use in word games and software. It contains about 173,000 words and is the list this site currently uses.

NWL

NWL is the NASPA Word List, the official word list for tournament Scrabble in the United States and Canada. It is maintained by an organisation and is licensed, so it cannot be copied into a tool without permission. The unscrambler shows it as coming soon.

CSW

CSW stands for Collins Scrabble Words, the list used for tournament play in the United Kingdom and most other countries outside North America. It is published by Collins and also licensed. It is generally larger than the North American list and has some different words. It is also shown as coming soon.

What this means for you

• Most common words appear in every list, so for everyday puzzles the differences are small.
• For competitive play, confirm any unusual word in the exact list your game or tournament uses.
• A word being missing from this site does not mean it is invalid elsewhere, and a word shown here may not be playable in your game.

The credits page lists the sources of the data used on this site.