Collections of Words

I find it easier to learn words if I know what they mean, and I also find it easier to learn these words if I learn them as a group.

So right now I'm working on Art Terminology, and also Coins and Monetary units of the world.

Art Terminology: Abacus and Abbey

Abacus
Architecture: The uppermost part of a capital, forming a slab on which the architrave rests.

Abbey
Architecture: A monastery governed by an abbot. The church of an abbey is called an "abbey church" and is usually planned to allow for the special requirements of the monks such as a deep choir or many altars.

____________
Bibliography
From Abacus to Zeus, A Handbook of Art History
James Smith Pierce, 1977

Status Report 3 Dec 2011

I have been playing a lot of games at the Online Scrabble Club and not doing very well...my ranking is now down to 371.

Which is okay, because I've really got to stop playing scrabble for a week or so and concentrate more on learning words I've got to learn. I still don't have all the 2-letter words memorized, and I really need to start learning the 3-letter words.

There are 4 very good scrabble players at my scrabble club - which meets every Thursday...my goal is to be able to defeat each of them on a regular basis. That's the only way that I'll know, by November of next year, if its worth going down to Dallas, Texas to participate in the Scrabble tournament down there.

Although...I will probably go anyway, just to get the experience of it.

6 letter words: R U Y P E L

3 letter words:
LYE
PER
PLY
PRY
REP
RUE
RYE
YWP
YUP

4 letter words:
LURE
LYRE
PREY
PULE - as in a "puling infant" - to cry in a high, thin voice
PURE
PURL - as in knit one, purl two (Origin:
1520–30; variant of obsolete or dial. pirl to twist (threads, etc.) into a cord)
PYRE
RELY
RULE
YELP

5 letter words
REPLY

6 Letter wirds
PURELY

6-letter word: O V E L C R

3 letter words:
COL
COR
OLE
ORC
ORE
REC
REV
VOE

4 letter words
CORE
COVE
LORE
LOVE
OVER
ROLE
ROVE
VOLE

5 Letter Words
CLOVE
COVER
LOVER

6 letter words
CLOVER

Setting a Record for the Guinness Book of World Records

I did a google search on "Guinness World Record Scrabble" and the only thing it came up with was the highest score.

Before I continue on with my post, I'll share an article about that:

From AZCentral: World Scrabble record set in Ahwatukee tournament

Laurie Cohen, a Tempe resident and founder of Tempe Scrabble Club, called her mother in New York at the close of the 25th Annual Phoenix Scrabble Tournament held at Grace Inn in Ahwatukee last weekend .

"I told her, 'I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is I did really crappy in the tournament; the good news is I might have gotten in the Guinness Book of World Records,'" said Cohen, who became the newest member of the Competitive Scrabble 700 Club by scoring 725 points in one game.

Cohen and her opponent, Arizona State University sophomore Nigel Peltier, scored a total 1,127 points, surpassing the previous Guinness record of 1,108.

The record requires the tournament game be without "phonies": words not found in the dictionary but sometimes successfully played without challenge. This match had none.

The world-record setting game Monday, the last day of competition, was the 19th of the 20-game tournament.

Cohen, director of institutional research at Scottsdale Community College, also became only the 13th tournament player to top 700 since 1981.

"It was just one game," said Cohen. "I'm playing in the top division where everybody is really, really good and I won only 9 of 20 games. But that one was exciting."

Though Peltier is a member of the Tempe Scrabble Club that Cohen founded five years ago, they've faced off only a handful of times.

The high score and Cohen's high point one-game tally crowned the 25th anniversary of the Phoenix Scrabble Tournament founded by Chandler resident Barbara Van Alen. Van Alen, a high-ranking national Scrabble competitor, won the National Scrabble Association's Co-Director of the Year Award in 2004 and is co-director of the Phoenix Scrabble Club, which hosted the Ahwatukee hosted the tournament and attracted players from Canada and throughout the U.S. including Hawaii.

Her co-director and husband Larry Rand said the Cohen-Peltier world record (Peltier scored 402) and Cohen's high score were extraordinary.

"Very few people ever attain a 700-point game - even a 600 game is rare. And then to have a new world record set - well, everything just fell into place."

To prepare for tournament competition, Cohen - who began playing the game at age 10 and competitively at 16 - says she melds the old with the new.

"After reading 'Word Freak' (a 2001 book on competitive Scrabble by Stefan Fatsis, I made flashcards starting with the highest probability words, then I put all the words I didn't know on cards," she said, estimating her word cards now number 20,000 to 30,000. "I'm at my computer a lot at work so I get up and go for a walk and go through my cards. It's kind of an old-school way to study."

Like many other modern-day Scrabble players, she also makes use of specialized study software like Zyzzyva.

In my own quest to become a Scrabble tournament champion master, I'm not messing with Zyzzyva, but I have my own plans..

And I have my own obsessions.

One of which is to spell every word in the Scrabble dictionary.

I've been keeping track for the last 2 weeks - which is when I got the idea.

I've been playing on the Internet Scrabble Club (Wordbiz) - 3 games a day.

And yes...I do use a dictionary to find words - but I justify that because I am in training. Scrabble played on the internet doesn't count, only Scrabble played against live people - like at a tournament.

I've worked out that it will take me a minimum of 3 years to play every word...

We'll see how it goes.

Wordbiz is getting on my nerves!

Played two games today... started out getting all consonants...ended up getting all vowels. Enough to annoy the heck out of me.