‘OK’ was just added to the Scrabble dictionary — here’s why it matters

Here is what you could call a real game changer (ha ha ha) for Scrabble — it is now permissible to use the word “ok” in play. While the spelling “okay” has already been allowed, “ok” has been added due to its common usage. Spelling “ok” with lowercase letters circumvents the Scrabble rule that prohibits the use of acronyms (a word formed as an abbreviation from other words) that are always spelled with capital letters, such as TV, RSVP and IQ.

“The word has been around for a long time, but the two-letter spelling wasn’t eligible for Scrabble play because it was always capitalized,” Merriam-Webster lexicographer Emily Brewster told Business Insider. “The lowercase variant ‘ok’ is now recognized as established, making ‘ok’ a playable word where formerly only ‘okay’ was accepted.”

In total, a whopping 300 new words were added to The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary this week, including “sheeple,” “twerk,” “puggle,” “yowza,” “emoji” and “hivemind.” In addition to “ok,” Scrabble also added “ew” to the list of two-letter approved words, bringing the total to 107.

For those of us who play Scrabble for fun (or because we’ve been roped into it during a power outage, ahem), it might not seem like such a big deal that “ok” has been okayed for use (see what we did there?). But as any competitive Scrabble player will tell you, two-letter words can boost your score and make the difference between winning and losing. Adding “ok” to the approved list now opens up exciting new strategies for competitive players.

In case you were wondering, here is the complete list of two-letter words you can play in Scrabble:

aa, ab, ad, ae, ag, ah, ai, al, am, an, ar, as, at, aw, ax, ay, ba, be, bi, bo, by, da, de, do, ed, ef, eh, el, em, en, er, es, et, ew, ex, fa, fe, gi, go, ha, he, hi, hm, ho, id, if, in, is, it, jo, ka, ki, la, li, lo, ma, me, mi, mm, mo, mu, my, na, ne, no, nu, od, oe, of, oh, oi, ok, om, on, op, or, os, ow, ox, oy, pa, pe, pi, po, qi, re, sh, si, so, ta, te, ti, to, uh, um, un, up, us, ut, we, wo, xi, xu, ya, ye, yo, za.

(It’s ok, we didn’t know them all, either.)

So start memorizing the list, and get ready to win at your next Scrabble game!