Scrabble to ban 400 words from official word list to make game more family friendly

Mattel, which owns the rights to the scrabble game outside North America, will remove 400 derogatory terms from the official list of eligible words that can be used in competition.

Former World English Language Scrabble Players Association Board member, Karen Richards, told Tom Elliott she was worried for the kids who play scrabble.

“When this list comes out, we will have to give the list to all these youngsters, tell them to learn these words and their meanings because you won’t be able to play it,” she said.

“You’ll have to explain to a seven year-old … why these words might be offensive.

“We have never had to consider the meaning of words in the past (in scrabble), we take a dictionary and we say every word in the dictionary is playable.

“From now on that won’t be the case.”

Ms Richards said this won’t make scrabble more family friendly.

Press PLAY to hear why.