The Highest One-Move Scrabble Score (2 of 2)

As far as I'm aware, anyway!

Josefa Heifetz, later known as Josefa Heifetz Byrne, would keep refining her SESQUIOXIDIZING solution. But in 2010, Jeff Grant rolled out “A 2152-Point Scrabble Move” in Word Ways, using SESQUIOXYDIZING, a differently-spelled version of SESQUIOXIDIZING, in a new position.

The crossing words all had dictionary support of some sort, though some of those dictionaries were a little musty. And “sesquioxydizing” has appeared in print—but not often, and unlike the other spelling, it hasn’t found a dictionary to verify it.

In 1979, Grant also presented this grid with the hypothetical word BENZHYDROXYQUIN, which, look, something-something chemistry, I don’t know. A 2013 piece by Grant admitted this was a “contrived base word,” so I think we can treat its 2278-point claim as dubious. Though that is the highest score anyone’s created under any circumstances…

…as long as you’re not just playing by Calvin and Hobbes rules.

In 1981’s “High-Scoring Scrabble Revised,” Kyle Corbin argued that this kind of thing had gone far enough and called for a record that used words from a single dictionary—maybe not an “officially approved Scrabble resource,” but a dictionary with some weight. Of those choices, he got the best results from Webster’s Second Edition, for a score of 1757 points, with DIAZOHYDROXIDES:

However, Corbin’s effort is no longer the greatest Scrabble score using a single, widely accepted resource. Many thanks to Eric Chaikin, who pointed me to this year’s update! Using the NASPA Word List 2023 (the latest, greatest authority accepted in Scrabble tournaments), it achieves a score of 1786.

OXYPHENBUTAZONE had appeared in other attempts, but some of the secondary words here are new. What do they mean?

Oxyphenbutazone is an NSAID like aspirin or Advil that was withdrawn in the 1980s for some vicious side effects. Call it “Badvil” if you’re so inclined. OPACIFICATIONS are processes that make clear things opaque, like what happens to my laptop screens that require their cleaning every month or so. OOGAMETE and ZOOGAMETE are reproductive cells with different qualities, one female and one found in plants. STABLISHMENTS is, ironically, just an older form of ESTABLISHMENTS. You can probably work out the rest!

Of course, all these Scrabble winning moves are theoretical, requiring not only a collaborative style of play and a generous definition of “dictionary support” but an insane amount of luck. Just the set of circumstances that would allow one to spell out SESQUIOXYDIZING or DEMYTHOLOGIZERS is improbable enough that I doubt it’s ever happened in a Scrabble game with witnesses. SESQUIOXYDIZING gold itself seems more likely. Sorry to join the crowd of DEMYTHOLOGIZERS, here.

The record-setting Scrabble word in actual tournament play is a record that has been equaled, but unsurpassed, for 42 years. The word is CAZIQUES, played by Karl Khoshnaw in Manchester on April 11, 1982 for a score of 392 points. What’s a cazique? It’s a kind of oriole, a kind of indigenous tribal leader, or just any leader—though I wouldn’t try using that last definition today, or you might get into a discussion of appropriation. The word is more often spelled cacique, but cazique is still a variant accepted by many dictionaries (though not by my spell-checker).

The 392 score was tied in the early 2010s with MEZQUITE by Maltese champion Godfrey Magri Demajo. Mezquite is a variant of mesquite.

Both CAZIQUES and MEZQUITE relied not on fortuitous crossings like the hypothetical entries, but on high-point letters and force-multipliers. They only crossed one word and didn’t complete any new words. Both were “triple-triples,” which is to say they landed on two triple-word scores, and the 10-point Z or Q also landed on a double-letter score. Without any multipliers, the score of CAZIQUES or MEZQUITE would be 28; with the double-letter, it was 38. The two triple-words multiplied that score by 9, bringing it to 342; then one adds 50 points for using all seven letters.

As Jeff Grant reported in 2013, “A higher legitimate single-move score is unlikely to occur in normal competition, but it is possible, particularly if a collaborative 'set-up' style is adopted. In a (very) friendly game between my wife Pat and I on 14 August 1998, I was 'fortunate' enough to play the allowable Chambers [Dictionary]-only word QUIZZIFY on a triple-triple for 419 points (Forwords, NZ Scrabble magazine, Dec 1998)." Quizzify has since made it into Collins and the OED.

I do hope Pat was well compensated for her assistance.

Tomorrow: A Scrabblicious micross!