AQUALUNG BAKELITES BENADRYL BIRO BRAGGERS BRILLOS BUDDHA CATHOLICS CELOTEX CENOZOIC COLICKIER COLICKIEST CROCKPOT CYCLOPES DACRON DEVONIAN DOBRO DUMPSTER DUMPSTERS EMMY EMMYS ENUF ENURESISES EOCENE EXAHERTZES FORMICAS FORZANDI FRISBEE FRISBEES GRUMMETED GRUMMETING HAFTOROS HERTZES HOLOCENE INIONS JACUZZI JELLO JETWAYS JURASSIC KEWPIE KEWPIES KLEENEX KLEENEXES KURTOSISES LAPIDES LATINA LEFTMOSTS LEVIS LILOS LUCITES LUREXES LYCRA MAILGRAMS MASONITE MERCES MESOZOIC MIOCENE MIPS MYLAR POPSICLES POSTCAVAS PYREX REALTOR SECONALS SILURIAN SORTA SPANSULE SPANSULES SPUTTERY STELLITE STETSON SURPLUSSES TALEYSIM TALLAISIM TALLITHIM TALLITOTH TANNOY TEFLON THERMITS TOFUTTI TORTA TRES TREVALLYS TRIASSIC TROPICALS UPTALKED UPTALKING VASELINE VELCROS VENUS VENUSES WIMMIN WORKABLY ZUZIM ZLOTE ZLOTYCH

Those are just some of the new words added to the most recent edition of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art is hosting a scrabble tournament for the National Scrabble Association of Indiana on Saturday, September 20. Museum visitors are invited to observe the tournament or to play scrabble on extra boards and tables that will be made available.

One of the Scrabble Association’s pre-tournament activities includes a special tour called “Words in Art,” which explores the art of the IMA through the words that are in the art. A few of the works on the tour will be Never Odd or Even (pictured above), Angel of the Resurrection, Robert Indiana’s Love and Holzer’s led sign with red diodes.

You may be surprised to learn that competitive scrabble has a lingo of its own.
Below are some Scrabble terms from the National Scrabble Association:

Bingo: Any word played that uses all seven letters on a player’s rack, earning a bonus of 50 points.

Brailing: Feeling the surface of a tile while your hand is in the bag in order to draw a blank or other specific letters. This is strictly forbidden.

Coffee-housing: To make small talk, crack knuckles or do any of a number of things meant to distract or mislead your opponent. This is unethical and strictly forbidden in clubs and tournaments. It is generally considered impolite to talk during a tournament game unless it is pertinent to the score or the play.

Fishing (aka Dumping): To play only one or two tiles, usually for few points, keeping five or six really good tiles, with the hope of playing a high-scoring word next turn.

Nongo: A bingo on your rack that won’t play on the board.

Phoney: Any unacceptable word. An unacceptable word is one that is not found in the Official Word List (OWL). Or, if the word has more than nine letters and is not found in the Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition. If a phoney is not challenged when it’s played, however, it will stay on the board for the remainder of the game.

Power Tiles: There are 10 power tiles. They are the two blanks, the four S’s and the J, Q, X and Z.

Scrabble talk aside, what does it mean to combine words with art? What messages do letters and words convey that images can not? What moves an artist to reach for a pen, so to speak, rather than a paintbrush?