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ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ENABLE ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ

The Enhanced North American Benchmark LExicon (ENABLE) is the mostthoroughly researched, and therefore the most authoritative word list

and reference available for Scrabble players. The word list file itselfretains the name WORD.LST, to retain compatibility with the WORDYutilities (http://personal.riverusers.com/~thegrendel/wordy530.zip)originally written for it. The word list is in plain ASCII format,unencrypted, and is placed in the Public Domain for anyone to use asthey see fit. It is non-proprietary, free, and freely available forany legal use. Moreover, it is "open source" in the sense that theresearcher and compiler, Alan Beale, carefully explains and elucidatesthe reasoning that has influenced his judgments on which words belong inthe list and why. The first edition of ENABLE has become a recognizedstandard and a benchmark for the Scrabble community. This revisedmillennial edition continues in the same proud tradition.

Since the release of its first edition, in the fall of 1997, ENABLE hasbecome something of a de facto standard for electronic word lists usedby word gamers. It has been adopted by developers and programmers forinteractive on-line word game servers and word construction (anagramming)software.

The master word list in ENABLE, WORD.LST, is *not* the so-called TWL98,a proprietary word list prepared by an "official" dictionary committeewith a corporate agenda. On the contrary, it is an even more accurateand authoritative reference for the serious Scrabble player. It isprimarily the result of a single unifying vision, that of Alan Beale,who dedicated countless hours to research. ENABLE therefore represents

not merely a superior alternative to the OSPD/TWL, it threatens tosupplant and replace it, to squeeze the very life out of it in a processof Darwinian selection.

ENABLE reflects the changes to the OSPD that went into place as ofJanuary 1, 1998, so many "old friends", such as "vin" and "da" have nowdisappeared. The original WORD.LST contained 100,701 words, this enhancedY2K update has 173,528. This word list would not have been possiblewithout the help of a number of people in the Scrabble community, mostnotably Alan Beale for his tireless research, and to them go my thanks.This revised second edition of ENABLE incorporates the words added to

the new printings of MW10, as well as Alan Beale's research into obscureplurals and other lexicographic arcana.

Ample documentation for the claims of accuracy and authoritativenessof the ENABLE list is contained in the SUPP2K.ZIP archive, particularlyin the file TWL_ENAB.DOC. This file contains a detailed listing of thedifferences between the ENABLE list and the DOOM/TWL98 list, includingsources and justifications for the additions and corrections.

The master word list, WORD.LST, contains all 70 of the MW10 "alsocalled" words. These are the italicized entries in the MW10 hidden indefinitions of other words with the notation "also called". An exampleof this is found in the entry for "streelight", wherein is the notation

"also called streetlamp". Therefore, the word "streetlamp" belongs inthe ENABLE WORD.LST. A complete list of these "also called" words, withappropriate cross-references, may be found in the ALSO.LST file in the


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SUPP2K.ZIP archive. Note that the DOOM/TWL98 list opened this particular"can of worms" with the adoption of the word "starfruit", found in thedefinition of "carambola". Nevertheless, the DOOM/TWL98 list still omitssome of the plurals of these words.

This edition of ENABLE benefits from the painstaking research on obscureplurals done by Alan Beale. He unearthed a number of explicit plurals in

MW10 that OSPD and other lists omit (see PLURALS.DOC in the supplementaryarchive). This alone gives ENABLE a significant advantage over OSPDand TWL.

In contrast to other word lists, the ENABLE list has not been crippledby being limited to words under an arbitrary length. The ENABLE list iseminently suitable for most word games, such as Anagrams and Clabbers,and for crossword puzzle solving, rather than just for Scrabble. A greatdeal of research has gone into removing this limitation, however thelist is much the better for it.

The file SIGWORD.LST is a list of the 1024 words in WORD.LST that do not

appear in the OSPD or MW10, but either appear in other standard sourcesor are words the ENABLE maintainers believe worthy of lexicographicrecognition. These "signature words" distinguish this list from others. Ofcourse, those wishing to may delete the SIGWORD.LST words from theWORD.LST in order to obtain a more "standardized" listing. This may beaccomplished simply and quickly using the UNIX "comm" utility in thefollowing manner:

comm -23 word.lst sigword.list > word.lst.new.

This will create the file "word.lst.new" with the signature words deleted.

As of this update, it is no longer necessary for DOS and Windows users to

resort to manually editing the WORD.LST file to remove the SIGWORD.LSTwords. Alan Beale's MAKELIST utility, distributed in the supplementaryarchive, provides the opportunity to build custom lists by combiningselected auxiliary lists from the ENABLE2K supplement with the base list.Even UNIX users may find MAKELIST more convenient than running built-insfrom the command line or a script.

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The ENABLE master word list, WORD.LST, is herewith formally releasedinto the Public Domain. Anyone is free to use it or distribute it inany manner they see fit. No fee or registration is required for itsuse nor are "contributions" solicited (if you feel you absolutelymust contribute something for your own peace of mind, the authors ofthe ENABLE list ask that you make a donation on their behalf to yourfavorite charity). This word list is our gift to the Scrabble community,as an alternate to "official" word lists. Game designers may feel freeto incorporate the WORD.LST into their games. Please mention the sourceand credit us as originators of the list. Note that if you, as a gamedesigner, use the WORD.LST in your product, you may still copyright andprotect your product, but you may *not* legally copyright or in any wayrestrict redistribution of the WORD.LST portion of your product. This*may* under law restrict your rights to restrict your users' rights,

but that is only fair.

It is to be expected that the maintainers of the OSPD and TWL will


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benefit from the research done for ENABLE. If these people incorporateportions of ENABLE into their lists, this may compromise the copyrightedproprietary status of those lists.

The accuracy of the WORD.LST is due, in great part, to the herculeanefforts of Alan Beale. He has put in many hours of multi-dictionaryresearch in checking conjugations, inflections, plurals, and obscure

parts of speech of thousands of words. In every sense of the word,he is as much the father of the word list as anyone.

Ross Beresford ([email protected]) has incorporated the WORD.LSTfrom the first edition of ENABLE into his North American Scrabble versionof his excellent TEA word list generation / analysis program. See hishome page, http://www.bryson.demon.co.uk/, for word list info and moredetails of TEA.


WORD.LST (pronounced "word-dot-list") is the generic term for the

ASCII-format word file released into the Public Domain as a standard anda reference for crossword-type games. As laptop and palmtop computershave become more common and affordable, it is convenient to use theWORD.LST in conjunction with utilities such as SEARCH.EXE and JUDGE.EXE(parts of the WORDY package) to adjudicate disputes in word gamecompetitive play. The OSPD in its various versions and incarnationsis not particularly well suited for this application as it is poorlyorganized, sometimes difficult to interpret, and clumsy to use (trylocating the word PELVES in the printed OSPD, for example). Furthermore,the WORD.LST is free from corporate politics and agendas, schemingand conniving, committee wrangling, "politically correct" appeasement,compromising, greed, and all other such nonsense. The WORD.LST is yours,word game players! Use it. Help keep it updated and corrected. Distribute

it (you do *not* need permission to do so, but tell us about it)!



Scrabble and OSPD are trademarks owned by Milton Bradley, a division ofHasbro.

Windows is a trademark of the Microsoft Corporation.

WORDY is *not* copyrighted and is *not* a trademark. It may be foundunder 'W' in any dictionary, just as scrabble, the verb, may be foundunder 'S'. The make-believe word "hasbro" may be whimsically defined as"possessing a male sibling" (named Milton, I guess).

ENABLE is not a trademark. WORD.LST is not a trademark.

This whole trademark business has been taken to ridiculous extremes.

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Disclaimer: Neither I nor Alan Beale is in any way associated with the


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so-called "Official Dictionary Committee", nor with the NSA in any of itsguises or avatars (i.e., neither the National Scrabble Association northe National Security Agency). We did not and do not have direct accessto the so-called TWL98, and the ENABLE list is not derivative from it. Wedo believe, however, the the ENABLE list is more thoroughly researched,more accurate, and therefore a more authoritative and generally usefulreplacement for the TWL98 list.

ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜImportant note:The supplementary archive, SUPP2K.ZIP, is a valuable adjunct to ENABLE. Itsupplies additional word lists, Alan Beale's "makelist" utility for combiningand expurgating lists, and the must-read documentation files on word listresearch on plurals. The resources in this supplement make possible creatingone's own "SOWPODS" list, creating custom combined lists, or even lists with"nasty words" removed, suitable for family use.ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ

M\Cooper [email protected] http://personal.riverusers.com/~thegrendel/

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