Fo’ shizzle: Scrabble stays dench and not ridic with obvs new words

Some may think it is ridic, but the evolution of language means that Scrabble has to keep up to stay dench — obvs. “Lolz,” “shizzle” and “cakehole” are among 6,500 new words added to the latest Collins Scrabble word list. A host of slang words used on social media, in texts and on the street are now approved for fans of the word game seeking to outplay their opponents. These include “obvs” (obviously), “ridic” (ridiculous), “lolz” (laughs), “shizzle” (sure), “cakehole” (mouth), and “dench” (excellent).

Dictionaries have always included formal and informal English, but it used to be hard to find printed evidence of the use of slang words. Now people use slang in social media posts, tweets, blogs, comments, text messages — you name it.

Helen Newstead, head of language content at Collins

Other new words in the list reflect modern society, trends and events, such as “twerking,” “vape” (to inhale from an electric cigarette), and “onesie.” The new word list also recognizes the role that technology plays in our lives with the addition of “facetime,” “hashtag,” and “sexting.” Collins Official Scrabble Words is compiled using the Collins corpus, the world’s largest language database, and includes words from Australia, Canada, South Africa, the U.K. and the U.S. brought together in a single list.

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