Collins Scrabble Words (CSW, formerlySOWPODS) is the word list used in English-language tournamentScrabble in most countries except the US and Canada,^[1] although Scrabble tournaments in the US and Canada are also organized with divisions that use Collins Scrabble Words as their lexicon, some under the auspices of organizations such as the Collins Coalition. The term SOWPODS is ananagram of the two abbreviationsOSPD (Official Scrabble Players Dictionary) andOSW (Official Scrabble Words), these being the original two official dictionaries used in various parts of the world at the time. Although the two source dictionaries have now changed their respective titles, the term SOWPODS is still used by tournament players to refer to the combination of the two sources. There has not been any actual hard-copy list produced called SOWPODS, although the current Collins Scrabble Words, or CSW, is in effect the full SOWPODS list by a different name.

Currently the two main sources for the words making up the combined list (generally known as Collins) are:

• TheBritish words. Derived from two sources; theCollins English Dictionary and theCollins Corpus,^[2] and
• TheAmerican words. From theNASPA Word List, formerlyOfficial Tournament and Club Word List, orTWL, derived from theMerriam-Webster's Dictionary and four other collegiate dictionaries. Latest version is NWL2023.

In 1980 in the United Kingdom, theChambers Dictionary replaced theShorter Oxford English Dictionary as the official choice for arbitration of theBritish National Scrabble Championship. In 1988 for the first time a single list of all the valid words, without the ambiguity of discussingconjugations,declensions andplurals was published under the titleOfficial Scrabble Words from Chambers (this would come to be known as OSW). North American Scrabble was using theOfficial Scrabble Players Dictionary (OSPD), hence when the firstWorld Scrabble Championship took place in 1991 words from either word source were allowed.

Over the following years there was disagreement in the competitive Scrabble community over the desirability of a combined word source, which came to be known as SOWPODS as an easily pronounced anagram of OSW and OSPD. Australia changed all its rated tournaments to using the SOWPODS word list in 1994, while the UK made the same change in 2001. This latter move coincided with the publication of the first official book to contain all words from OSW and OSPD (Chambers' Official Scrabble Words: International Edition).

In December 2003,^[3] Collins took over the publication of the official word list sanctioned byWESPA, and the current edition is CSW24.^[4]

The only change from CSW19 to CSW22 was the deletion of 419 words deemed to be hate speech. This is following a directive fromMattel,^[5] who committed to ongoing review and removal of words and definitions, removing hate speech from the game and obliging Collins publisher as a licensee to implement these changes. Three more words were removed in the transition from CSW22 to CSW24.^[6]

• NASPA Word List

• www.collinsdictionary.com – Collins Scrabble Word Finder

• Scrabble lexica
• English dictionaries

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata