top of page

Scrooge Plays Scrabble Online

The letters on your rack are:

E E E E N Z ?

On the board there is an R near the right hand side that can be used as either the last letter or the 2nd to last letter. You need to play an 8 letter word using the R that is on the board

The answer to this week's puzzle comes soon, not at the bottom of the page.

I was playing against someone online and they managed to play a bingo in that situation. It is a strange feature of playing scrabble on the internet that when someone plays an unusual bonus word which you don’t know you seem to automatically think “Bah Humbug! They must be cheating using an anagrammer”

Even though I have played against people in ‘real life’ tournaments who are capable of such plays it seems to be human nature to be cynical when you can’t actually see your opponent.

For example when Alistair Richards played BURRFISH against me I challenged and then when it turned out to be a word I said “Wow, nice play”

Similarly I said the same thing when Andrew Fisher played VITILIGO against me. Fortunately I didn’t need to challenge, but it was still an amazingly good find on a rack with no blanks.

I am glad that the most unusual word I have ever played – AMADAVAT – was played in a live game because if it was played online you just know in your heart what your opponent must be thinking.

So when my opponent with this week's problem rack played EBENEZER I gritted my teeth and typed in “nice”. However my cynical streak was there as I muttered to myself. Later, after we had finished I had a look at that player’s history to study some of their other games. As usual when I check someone like that, they found several other very good bonus words, but I also satisfied myself they were not a cheat. If they had been using an anagrammer I found several occasions where they would have definitely found even more bingos as well. Obviously they are just a very good player who studies their bingos. If by any chance they happen to read this blog, then I will put an exclamation mark after “nice’ and ungrit my teeth. (Whoops, ungrit is NOT a word)

Anyway I hope you found EBENEZER with all those clues I gave you.

We did words with lots of E’s last week, we can’t do that again. Humbug! I say. We will do 6 letter words where the only vowels are the letter U. To keep the list to a manageable size I have also excluded words with an S and words you can’t play without a blank, such as HUBBUB:

BUHUND A Norwegian dog

BULBUL An Indian Songbird

BULGUR A form of cooked, broken wheat

BUNKUM Insincere or foolish talk

CUNDUM A condom

CUPFUL As much as a cup can hold

CUPRUM Copper

DUMDUM A soft nosed expanding bullet

DURDUM An uproar

FUCKUP Something completely mismanaged. A disaster

FURFUR Dandruff

GRUGRU A West Indian name for several types of palm tree

GUMNUT The woody fruit of the eucalyptus

GURJUN A thin balsam or wood oil from derived from an East Indian tree

GUTFUL One’s fill. More than enough

HUDDUP An instruction to a horse. Like giddyup.

HUMBUG To deceive

HUMHUM A plain coarse cotton cloth

JUGFUL As much as a jug can hold

KRUBUT A malodorous tropical plant

KULTUR Culture

LUXURY Ease, pleasure and indulgence

MUCLUC A sealskin boot

MUDBUG A crayfish

MUGFUL As much as a mug can hold

MUGGUR An Indian crocodile with a broad snout

MULMUL A fine soft muslin

MULTUM Extract of quassia licorice used in shoddy brewing to save on hops

MURMUR A subdued, muttered sound

MZUNGU A white person in East Africa. (Same as PAKEHA in New Zealand)

NUBUCK A type of leather with a velvety finsih

PULLUP The act of raising oneself when hanging by the hands

PULTUN A regiment in the Indian army

RUMDUM An alcoholic

TUBFUL As much as a tub can hold

TUCHUN A Chinese military governor

TUMULT To make a great din and commotion

TUNDUN Australian bullroarer (Ceremonial noisemaker or signalling device)

TURNUP A part of a garment that is turned up

UNBURY To exhume

UNCUFF To remove from handcuffs

UNCURB To remove from restraints

UNCURL To straighten the curls

UNDULY Exceeding what is appropriate or normal

UNFURL To unroll

UNHUNG Not hung

UNHURT Not hurt

UNPLUG To take a plug out

UNRULY Difficult to control

UNTUCK To release from being tucked up

UNTURF To strip the turf from

UNTURN To turn backwards

UPCURL To curl up

UPFURL To roll up

UPHUNG Past tense of to hang up

UPHURL To hurl up

UPTURN To turn up or over

URNFUL As much as an urn can hold

The most surprising one was HUMBUG. I thought it was just an expression, but it is a verb meaning to deceive. Apparently I was humbugged by humbug

Happy Scrabbling Patrick

Recent Posts
bottom of page