How to Challenge a Word in Scrabble
Look for potentially invalid plays., Announce your challenge before your opponent has drawn their tiles., Look up the word., Deal with the consequences.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Look for potentially invalid plays.
If one of your fellow players puts down a strange word or one that you think is not spelled correctly, then you may want to challenge the word.
Pay close attention to the plays that your fellow players make during their turns, including small words that are created in conjunction with larger ones. -
Step 2: Announce your challenge before your opponent has drawn their tiles.
If you decide that you want to challenge a word, you need to announce your intent to challenge the word before the next player has drawn their tiles.
Make sure that you state the specific word or words when you issue your challenge.Right after the suspect word has been played, say something like, “I challenge the word:____."
To verify whether or not the word that has been played is a valid word, you or another player (not the player being challenged) will need to look it up in the dictionary.
If the word is not in the dictionary, then announce that the play was invalid.
If it was correct, then announce that the play was valid., Either you or the player you challenged will lose a turn.
If you challenged the player and the word was valid, then you lose your next turn.
If the word was invalid, then the person you challenged must remove the tiles from the board, does not gain any points for the tiles, and loses that turn.
The player may not put down a different word until his or her next turn.If you think that losing a turn for challenging another player is too harsh, you may choose to play by a different rule for challenges.
Some players choose to have no penalty for challenging or to only lose 5 points for challenging if the word turns out to be valid.
These rules must be agreed upon before the start of the game. -
Step 3: Look up the word.
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Step 4: Deal with the consequences.
Detailed Guide
If one of your fellow players puts down a strange word or one that you think is not spelled correctly, then you may want to challenge the word.
Pay close attention to the plays that your fellow players make during their turns, including small words that are created in conjunction with larger ones.
If you decide that you want to challenge a word, you need to announce your intent to challenge the word before the next player has drawn their tiles.
Make sure that you state the specific word or words when you issue your challenge.Right after the suspect word has been played, say something like, “I challenge the word:____."
To verify whether or not the word that has been played is a valid word, you or another player (not the player being challenged) will need to look it up in the dictionary.
If the word is not in the dictionary, then announce that the play was invalid.
If it was correct, then announce that the play was valid., Either you or the player you challenged will lose a turn.
If you challenged the player and the word was valid, then you lose your next turn.
If the word was invalid, then the person you challenged must remove the tiles from the board, does not gain any points for the tiles, and loses that turn.
The player may not put down a different word until his or her next turn.If you think that losing a turn for challenging another player is too harsh, you may choose to play by a different rule for challenges.
Some players choose to have no penalty for challenging or to only lose 5 points for challenging if the word turns out to be valid.
These rules must be agreed upon before the start of the game.
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Sophia Stevens
Creates helpful guides on organization to inspire and educate readers.
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