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National Scrabble Day – April 13 – America’s Favorite Word Game

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April 13 is celebrated as National Scrabble Day. If you enjoy playing this popular puzzle game, you’ll be delighted to honor it today.

Not only is it a fun game, but it’s also educational. I know I’ve learned new words when playing the game with friends. 

National days of the year are a fun way to celebrate foods, animals and household items that you come into contact with.  Be sure to check out my national day’s guide for more fun days to celebrate.A pile of Scrabble tiles with a text overlay reading "National Scrabble Day, April 13".

What is Scrabble?

Scrabble is a popular word game for 2-4 players. Each player scores points by placing tiles of a single letter onto a game board that is divided in a 15 x 15 grid of squares.A Scrabble game with the board mostly filled out.

The tiles need to form words which intersect in crossword fashion as the game progresses. The words have to be found in a standard dictionary.

Fun facts about ScrabbleWords made with scrabble tiles on a wooden table.

Brush up on your knowledge of Scrabble with these fun facts. Some may surprise you!

  • The game Scrabble was invented in 1938 by Alfred Mosher Butts, an American architect.
  • The original name for Scrabble was Lexico.
  • There is a Braille version of Scrabble for blind players.
  • The game of Scrabble is sold in 121 countries and it is available in 31 different languages.
  • John Travolta, Carol Burnett, and Jimmy Kimmel all love to play Scrabble.
  • If you lined up all the Scrabble tiles ever produced, they would make a line longer than 50,000 miles!
  • The World Scrabble Championship has been an open event since 2014.
  • It is possible to score 1782 points for the word oxyphenbutazone, placed strategically on the board.

Scrabble tips for getting a high score

Using your tiles in a strategic way is the key to getting high scores. Here are some tips for maximizing your tiles.A dictionary, piece of paper and rack of Scrabble tiles on a table with a text overlay reading "Scrabble tips for high scores".

  • Try to keep a balance of vowels and consonants on your rack to make each play count well.
  • Use suffixes wisely.  Adding ish, ism and other common suffixes can change someone else’s word into one that gives you a great score.
  • In Scrabble, a bingo means using all your letters in one word. Plan ahead for these and use blank tiles to create bingos.
  •  Just like suffixes, prefixes will also lengthen existing words on the board to give you a bigger score.  Some common prefixes are anti-, dis- and un-.
  • Brush up on the use of unusual 2 letter words.  They can use high scoring consonants effectively. Some words to add to your arsenal are xi, ox, zo, za and qi.  Find some other two letter words here.
  • Arm yourself with words using the letter Q ahead of time. It’s a very high scoring tile, but one that is hard to use in words.  Here are some words with Q in them that don’t also need the letter e.
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How to celebrate National Scrabble DayA black and white photo of a Scrabble board with tiles that spell out "Scrabble" to celebrate National Scrabble Day.

Would you like to celebrate National Scrabble Day in a special way? Try one of these ideas.

  • Get your kids involved by playing Scrabble Junior with them.
  • Improve your chances of scoring better with the Scrabble dictionary.
  • Get in some wizardry with the Harry Potter Scrabble Game.
  • Calling all gardeners! Enjoy both of your hobbies with Scrabble Gardening.
  • Spread the word on social media using the hashtag #nationalscrabbleday. Here is a tweet to get you started:
How is your word sense?  April 13 is celebrated each year as #nationalscrabbleday.  Get your tiles ready and challenge a family member to a game today. Share on X

More national days in April

There are close to 2000 national days in the year and over 150 of them are celebrated in April. Be sure to check out this post to discover more about the national days in April.

Be sure to also check out these national days this month:

Pin this post for National Scrabble Day for later

Would you like a reminder of this post for National Scrabble Day? Just pin this image to one of your boards on Pinterest so that you can easily find it later.

You can also check out our YouTube video for information about more national days in April.

A collage of Scrabble images (a pile of Scrabble tiles, and a Scrabble board) with a text overlay reading "National Scrabble Day, April 13".

Admin note: This post first appeared on the blog in April of 2019. I have updated the post with additional photos. more information, and tips for scoring high on a scrabble game.

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arshpreet singh

Monday 15th of February 2021

Great idea!!! 😀

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission from the sale, but the price is the same for you. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."