Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Y is for YES!

Another blogger recently left some comments on my blog and turned me on to ABC Wednesday, a fun interactive blog that goes through the alphabet and encourages people to post on whatever the relative letter happens to be that particular week... 

A blog that focuses on words and letters? YES! Sign me up! So for as many Wednesdays as I'm able, I'll be focusing on whatever letter is featured that week, from a scrabble point of view. 

So here are a few Y-related words and their definitions, all of which are 'good' (good, in scrabble terms, means acceptable according to the TWL, or Tournament Word List):

WYE  the letter Y [n] (anagram= YEW)  Most of the letters have a word form to them, my favorite being H. But you'll have to wait a few weeks for that one.

SYZYGY the configuration of the earth, moon, and sun lying in a straight line.[n] This is the shortest good word that uses three Y's.  also SYZYGAL and SYZYGIAL (adj)

YA you [pron] is the first Y word in the scrabble dictionary. Incidentally, learning all the legit two letter scrabble words is considered to be the first step to becoming a scrabble addict, er, I mean, improving your score.

YWIS certainly [adv] is the last word. It's an alternate spelling of IWIS. 

There are a few other Y words that are also like this (in that there isn't a vowel after the Y):
YCLAD clothed [adj]
YCLEPED or YCLEPT called; named [adj]
YLEM hypothetical matter from which elements are derived [n]
YPERITE a poisonous gas [n]
YTTERBIA and YTTRIA a chemical compound [n]
YTTRIUM a metallic element [n]

and finally, I'm going to list what scrabble players call an 'extension', which is a word that you would only be able to play in scrabble by extending an existing word on the board:

YOCTOSECOND!!!!!

according to google, it's one septillionth of a second. It is now my dream to be able to play this word during a scrabble game.

Thank you for spending quite a few yoctoseconds if you've made it this far down the page.







8 comments:

Cheryl said...

I've just started playing Scrabble again after years away. This is going to come in handy. Thanks for linking up this week.

Gigi Ann said...

YES, YES...I love SCRABBLE, and play it every chance I get. However, I never seem to win, but so be it, the fun is in the playing, but should I win once in awhile, I don't complain.

Thanks for visiting and leaving such a cute comment in My Reading Corner.

Georgia said...

my mom and i are avid scrabble players and love using what my husband calls "cheater words".this is an awesome resource!

Shail Raghuvanshi said...

Nice take on the alphabet....

Happy New Year
Shail

Roger Owen Green said...

I'm glad "some blogger" came by your blog. This is a GREAT post, right in line with the theme. Welcome.

ROG, ABC WEDNESDAY team

Joy said...

As an occasional scrabble player I can only dream of being able to remember unusual words. The yoctosecond on a triple word score, mmm, I'm dreaming...

Tumblewords: said...

I play online with a granddaughter who's brilliant and doesn't mind whipping me. These words may come in handy. Thanks!

Vicky said...

I enjoy playing scrabble and quite addicted to it!
I play on faceook and I like your blog.