Even reasonably experienced players tend to think that hooks – those letters you can add to the beginning or end of a word to form another word – mainly come into play with shorter words. But there are a surprising number of hooks even for eight-letter words, giving the possibility of making a nine-letter word for little effort. Here are some of the best:
ACRODONT of teeth, having no roots, fused to the jaw
MACRODONT having large teeth
BOUSOUKI Greek musical instrument
BOUSOUKIA plural of BOUSOUKI
CONICITY being conical in shape
ICONICITY state of being an icon
EDGEWISE with the edge forwards
WEDGEWISE like a wedge
GELASTIC relating to laughter
AGELASTIC never laughing
IDEOGRAM symbol representing something
VIDEOGRAM audiovisual recording
LUXMETER device for measuring light
FLUXMETER instrument for measuring magnetic flux
MATACHIN dancer with swords
MATACHINI dancers with swords
MELINITE a type of high explosive
GMELINITE zeolitic mineral
QUARTETT same as QUARTET
QUARTETTO same as QUARTET
REENGAGE to engage again
GREENGAGE type of fruit
SANDARAC type of tree
SANDARACH same as SANDARAC
So if you’re ever ordering some GMELINITE, be very specific that you want the one with a G at the beginning, otherwise you might get more than you bargained for.
By Barry Grossman
Barry is a leading UK Scrabble player and winner of several tournaments. He is the author of Scrabble for Beginners (Chambers), Need to Know Scrabble, Scrabble – Play to Win and The Little Book of Scrabble Trickster. He has also contributed to numerous other books on the subject of words and word-games, has been a series champion of Channel 4’s Countdown, and has written four comedy series for BBC Radio 4. He lives in Hertford.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
