What Is Scrabble?
Scrabble is a word board game played by two to four players. Each player draws letter tiles from a bag and uses them to form words on a 15×15 grid, scoring points based on the letters used and where the word is placed on the board. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.
A Brief History
Scrabble was invented in 1938 by Alfred Mosher Butts, an American architect who was unemployed during the Great Depression. He called the original game "Criss-Cross Words." The game was later acquired and refined by James Brunot, who renamed it Scrabble in 1948.
The game became wildly popular in the early 1950s after Macy's department store began stocking it. Today, Scrabble is sold in 121 countries and 29 languages, with an estimated 150 million sets sold worldwide.
The Basic Idea
The goal is simple: use your letter tiles to form valid words on the board, score more points than your opponent, and empty your rack before the tiles run out.
What makes Scrabble interesting is the tension between:
- Scoring high now vs. setting yourself up for future turns
- Using all your tiles vs. keeping the best ones
- Playing offense vs. blocking your opponent
This combination of vocabulary, strategy, and probability makes Scrabble one of the deepest word games ever created.
Who Plays Scrabble?
Scrabble is played at every level — from kitchen tables to national championships. The World Scrabble Championship draws elite players from dozens of countries. In North America, the main competitive body is the North American Scrabble Players Association (NASPA), and clubs meet in cities across the continent.
You don't need to be a walking dictionary to enjoy Scrabble. Even new players can improve quickly by learning a handful of key words and basic strategies.
What You'll Learn in This Series
These introductory articles will cover everything a new player needs to start playing confidently:
- The board, tiles, and setup
- How turns work
- Scoring rules
- Valid words and the dictionary
- Basic strategy for beginners
- Common beginner mistakes
- Special tiles — the blank and the S
- Two-letter words every new player should know
- Playing your first game
- How to keep improving
By the end, you'll have a solid foundation to enjoy Scrabble with friends and family — and the tools to keep getting better.
Scrabble rewards both words you know and words you learn. Every game teaches you something new.