Scrabble Adds LGBTQ Words to Official Dictionary

The Scrabble dictionary has updated its list of approved words for the first time since 2015. Among the 2,800 new words players can use are genderqueer, cisgender, transphobia, and the pronoun ze, which could be a game changer for Scrabble players considering it's only the third approved two-letter z word in Scrabble history, according to TheNew York Times.

The new words were approved by Collins, publisher of the Collins English Dictionary. And the move to add the Scrabble words comes after Merriam-Webster approved the words last year.

Also added to the existing 276,000-word Scrabble dictionary were words including manspreading, antivaxxer, fatberg, fleek, and bae, according to The Independent.

But the most controversial addition to the dictionary this year was approval of the two-letter ok, which Merriam-Webster approved last year.

"We spent a week last summer debating this," John Chew, co-president of the North American Scrabble Players Association, told the Times of the debate regarding whether or not the two-letter word is an abbreviation.

"Eventually, we came down with the point that we're not sure if it's an initialism, so we should give it the benefit of the doubt," Chew said. "I'd say 95 percent of the people in the community agreed with the decision, but the 5 percent of people who disagreed were disproportionately loud."