Kiwi Hooks

Last week we looked at hooking the letter E in front of some words. Because there are 12 of those letters in the set that is usually done when you are hoping your opponent does not know the word. But for a letter like a K, you might not be concerned about that. You might have set up the situation with the K already on your rack. For example, imagine there was a D next to the Double Word Square near the top left. You could play the word KNEE with the K on the Double Letter Square at the top of the board. That would score you 32 points. The trouble with that is that your opponent will probably score at least that in reply using the Triple Word Square. It might be better strategy to play the word NEE for a score of only 12 points. Your opponent does not have a great scoring opportunity. They still won’t have one after the next turn if you are able to play something like HOOK and KNEE for 61 points. That makes a total of 73 points in two turns without giving your opponent a big scoring opportunity. Scrabble is a game of strategy, not just word knowledge.

A Grade Challenge

A A B E K N S

A E E H K N T

A E F K L O S

B I I K L O T

A A D E K P S

B & C Grade Study List

The story I told in the preamble has one flaw. If your opponent had an S and knew the word SNEE they could have foiled your plan. It was still a good plan because (1) they might not have known that word, or (2) not had an S, or (3) not been willing to play their S in a non-bonus word.

The words we will look at in today’s list do not have that problem because the only hooking letter is a K – nothing else will do.

First here are K hooks in front of 3 letter words:

KBAR A unit of atmospheric pressure

KIWI

KNUR A knot of wood (also the meaning of NUR)

KNUT A swell or a dandy

KYAR A fibre obtained from corn husks

KRAI An administrative district in Russia

The base word of RAI is a form of African music

And here are K hooks in front of 4 letter words.

KARSY A lavatory. (Appropriate as it is a hook for ARSY)

KLUGE To fix something by clumsy methods

KLUTZ A clumsy person

KNAVE

KNIFE

KNISH A dough with potato that is used in Jewish cooking

KNOLL A small hill

KNOUT To flog with a leather whip

KNOWN

KNURL To make grooves or ridges

KNURR A knot or wood

KOMBU Japanese seaweed (OMBU is a S American tree)

KVELL To be happy (VELL is a calf’s stomach)

KYANG Tibetan wild ass

KUTAS Men or boys regarded as unpleasant or contemptible

UTA wasn’t in the first list because it took an O hook for OUTA

Answers to A Grade Challenge

SEABANK A bank beside the sea

THANKEE A colloquial form of thank you

SEAFOLK Sea faring people

KILOBIT A unit of computer info. One thousand bits

ADSPEAK The type of language used in advertisements

Happy Scrabbling Patrick