'Bestie,' 'twerk' among 300 words added to Scrabble dictionary

(UPI) Scrabble introduced 300 new entries to its dictionary of acceptable words on Monday.

Merriam-Webster published a list highlighting some of the new words, including portmanteaus and other modifications of existing words, some non-English words and slang terms that have become commonly used in modern vocabulary.

The two-letter expression of disgust "ew" was the shortest word added to Scrabble's dictionary, joining a list of 106 other two-letter words, which are a vital part of Scrabble strategy.

"OK" was also added to the list after its capitalization prevented it from being used as a Scrabble word in the past.

"It used to be entered only as 'OK' or 'okay,'" Emily Brewster, an associate editor and lexicographer at Merriam-Webster told The New York Times.

"The ability to add seemingly random letters to existing ones will allow a player to enjoy far greater latitude in placing their words on the board, and will annoy opponents who think that the game should be played with words they recognize," the post stated.

The word "frowny" returned to the Scrabble dictionary after being removed from the 1961 edition, giving players another opportunity to play a valuable Y tile.

Also among the new additions were "bestie" -- although BFF is not yet playable -- and twerk along with other forms of the word such as twerks, twerked, and twerking but not twerkings and twerkery."

Two words which didn't originate in English and describe cultural items from other countries were also added to Scrabble's dictionary. First was the word "Qapik" -- a variant of the word gopik, which is defined as a monetary subunit of the manat of Azerbaijan, along with arancini an Italian style dish consisting of balls of cooked rice.

The remaining additions included "bizjet", a merging of the words business and jet, zomboid, which added another playable word ending in -oid and beatdown.

"It means that in some ways the whole game is thrown open and made anew," Brewster said of the new additions. I think it's especially exciting to people who play regularly.