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Where can I find the latest Collins Scrabble Words list in a text file? Googling this seems surprisingly difficult to find. I can only find some sites where I can check if the word is in the list.

BJ Myers
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2 Answers2

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In official use from 1 July 2019:

Old:

If you find any errors, please leave a comment here.

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    Again the downvotes. Would the downvoters mind taking a moment to explain why they downvoted the Q and also the A? I think that would help newcomers like me understand this SE better and contribute more productively. Thanks. –  Sep 09 '17 at 01:43
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    I've downvoted the answer, because I believe you are linking to copyright-protected content. No idea about the q, though... – steenbergh Sep 09 '17 at 06:26
  • Note that CSW15 actually has 276,663 words, which is 20 more than in this list. The difference appears to be words like "knickknack", which are unplayable in Scrabble because of the letter distribution. – A. Rex Sep 17 '19 at 01:19
  • @A.Rex: That's very helpful, thanks! I was aware that my lists seemed to have some missing words but wasn't sure why. Now I know. –  Sep 17 '19 at 01:51
  • @KennyLJ - I tried finding a place where I can purchase this list for commercial use, but I have been unsuccessful. Have you encountered any? – Kobus Myburgh Sep 12 '20 at 00:26
  • @KobusMyburgh: No. –  Sep 12 '20 at 00:51
  • Thank you, Kenny. I have since contacted Collins themselves, awaiting an answer. – Kobus Myburgh Sep 14 '20 at 01:59
  • @KobusMyburgh did you get a reply from Collins about commercial use? – Vajk Hermecz Feb 03 '22 at 15:14
  • @VajkHermecz - no, unfortunately not. I have not worked on the project since, as I do not want any legal trouble. – Kobus Myburgh Feb 04 '22 at 16:11
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The Words List seems to be protected by copyright. I highly doubt downloading the entire list - especially in an easily accessible format - is strictly speaking legal.

I found this on the Collins website.

Collins is the only online Scrabble word finder to use the official tournament word list.

So, I googled official tournament word list, and found this site, of the North American Scrabble Players Association. There it's stated that the Word List can be bought in print or digital format. The digital copy also needs a certain program:

Electronic Editions

NASPA members may use the free word study and adjudication tool, NASPA Zyzzyva, to access a licensed electronic copy of this word list. OTCWL2016 is included beginning with NASPA Zyzzyva version 3.1.0.

NASPA Zyzzyva is available for download to Windows and Mac machines at the NASPA Zyzzyva download site, which includes download and installation instructions.

Community
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steenbergh
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    In my opinion downloading copyrighted material for noncommercial personal use is legal. Uploading it is a separate question. Apps for Windows/MacOS/Linux can be downloaded for free from http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/NASPA_Zyzzyva_Download. That is linked to from the page that @steenbergh linked. I easily extracted the British 2019 word list .txt file from the application file. In case it helps anyone, the Mac file path of that file is /Applications/NASPA Zyzzyva 3.3.0/Zyzzyva.app/Contents/MacOS/data/words/British/CSW19.txt. Lists for other years/regions are contained in the application. – brec Dec 10 '22 at 21:18
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    These also stay up-to-date, unlike the pirated ones from @user21608 on Google Drive. – joshtch Dec 19 '23 at 19:51