Can we use a dictionary to help find words when we play Scrabble?

Question

My friends say that we can only use a dictionary to verify a challenged word. I have always used a dictionary to help find words to play. Who is right??

Answer 1

In tournament SCRABBLE you can only use the dictionary when a word has been challenged.

In casual play, you can set the house rules to allow or disallow the dictionary.

Answer 2

I think the only purpose of a dictionary in Scrabble is to look up words to see if they are in fact, real words.

Answer 3

Well both of you are right because if you think that you can't think of any words then yes you can use a dictionary but if you can find a word but if it is to hard to spell then you can use a dictonary too. I hope I helped you thanks! :)

Answer 4

My favorite game :)

According to the official rules of the game, you are not to use a dictionary during gameplay unless one of the players is challenging a play *after* it has already been played.

Many people, however, enjoy playing Scrabble using their own rules (table rules) instead.  If you and your opponent think it would be funner to use a dictionary any time you like, then that is fine.  If you are the kind of person that thinks that playing by the rules is the *only* real way to have fun during games, then agree with your opponent to stick to the official rules.  (Oh -- you should probably avoid playing "Rook" if you are that kind of person -- given how it seems two groups of people never quite play that game with the same rules -- and hardly anybody I know plays by the "official" rules of Rook -- but they always have fun :)

Answer 5

To check your spelling or verify that something is actually a word. Are you spelling reindeer correctly? You don't have it spelled riendeer or raindeer  do you????

Answer 6

That's something that should be agreed upon at the start of each game.  Personally I think it's cheating to use a dictionary to check for words before they are played.  Part of the challenge of Scrabble is vocabulary knowledge.

Answer 7

You are not suppose to use one during play. Only if your word is challenged. You can use it to "study" before the game.

Answer 8

only to verify spelling but not to look for words. That wold take to long and the point in skrabble to test your word knowledge not to test your ability to search the Dictionary.