Which words are played most often in Scrabble games on the Internet game servers, and how often are words...
competition/games/scrabble.word.frequency New
New entry, edited from material collected for the archive and not yet in a released version.
Problem
Which words are played most often in Scrabble games on the Internet game servers, and how often are words containing a Q but no U played? [ Editor: problem statement reconstructed from the posting, a reply in a December 1994 thread "The word QI" on the crossword-games-pro and word-game-programmers mailing lists. ]
Show solution
By way of comparison, here are some statistics on word frequency on
PoslDOoM (frequented mostly by expert players) and MarlDOoM (which sees
a wide range of skill levels). For each server, I list extracts from
the list of main words in frequency order, and from the list of words
(including cross-words) in frequency order. Complete lists are
available upon request.
--
MarlDOoM (main words only)
169325 main words were played in 6346 games, an average of 26.7 words per
game. 16476 of the words (9.7%) were unique. Here is a list of the top
5 words of each length, together with all words containing a Q but no U.
Freq/ Freq/ Mean
Rank Game Million Score Word
1 0.21588 8091 22.9 qat
2 0.09549 3579 32.8 xi
3 0.08005 3000 24.9 jo
4 0.06918 2593 24.1 qua
5 0.06508 2439 24.8 qaid
6 0.06461 2421 35.8 ex
7 0.06272 2351 18.1 if
8 0.06177 2315 35.7 ox
9 0.05752 2156 26.9 zee
12 0.05232 1961 24.8 zit
20 0.04318 1618 24.6 zoo
64 0.02663 998 31.6 qats
65 0.02663 998 24.9 quit
78 0.02474 927 25.3 quid
84 0.02348 880 27.8 quin
259 0.01261 472 33.0 queen
331 0.01103 413 30.1 quire
416 0.00977 366 31.4 quote
419 0.00961 360 33.3 faqir
452 0.00930 348 33.0 queer
570 0.00788 295 31.5 tranq
723 0.00646 242 35.6 qaids
773 0.00615 230 32.6 qanat
967 0.00488 183 30.2 qoph
1295 0.00362 136 35.1 equine
1612 0.00299 112 32.2 qintar
2054 0.00236 89 40.7 qindar
2091 0.00221 83 18.9 auntie
2182 0.00221 83 39.1 quaint
2332 0.00205 77 66.9 loaners
2481 0.00189 71 60.9 elation
2644 0.00173 65 74.6 aeriest
2757 0.00173 65 70.8 isolate
2893 0.00158 59 75.0 atonies
3787 0.00126 47 69.8 outraise
4242 0.00110 41 63.9 outlands
4307 0.00110 41 66.1 routines
4455 0.00095 35 73.5 alienate
4564 0.00095 35 69.7 daintier
4630 0.00095 35 47.8 faqirs
6967 0.00063 24 36.8 qanats
7238 0.00063 24 39.2 tranqs
13309 0.00032 12 36.5 outquoted
13457 0.00032 12 48.0 pensively
13676 0.00032 12 52.5 quartzite
13875 0.00032 12 44.0 relations
16085 0.00016 6 33.0 antilogies
16418 0.00016 6 39.0 autorotating
16704 0.00016 6 51.0 bedirtying
17779 0.00016 6 30.0 cerebrations
18643 0.00016 6 45.0 curtseying
19141 0.00016 6 80.0 devastation
19326 0.00016 6 36.0 dispiteous
19857 0.00016 6 96.0 embittered
22685 0.00016 6 48.0 invocations
26510 0.00016 6 96.0 qindars
26511 0.00016 6 16.0 qintars
26894 0.00016 6 21.0 recodifying
--
MarlDOoM (all words)
318338 words were played in 6346 games, an average of 50.2 words per
game. 18125 of the words (5.7%) were unique. Here is a list of the top
5 words of each length, together with all words containing a Q but no U.
Freq/ Freq/
Rank Game Million Word
1 0.42294 8431 re
2 0.33281 6634 jo
3 0.33092 6597 er
4 0.31484 6276 we
5 0.31059 6192 in
29 0.21699 4326 qat
91 0.07138 1423 joe
92 0.06981 1392 qua
94 0.06603 1316 axe
95 0.06524 1301 qaid
96 0.06209 1238 awe
105 0.04995 996 qats
128 0.03546 707 aqua
158 0.02884 575 ziti
165 0.02663 531 quit
296 0.01844 368 qaids
529 0.01261 251 queen
532 0.01261 251 squid
550 0.01229 245 quite
602 0.01150 229 quail
708 0.00961 192 faqir
864 0.00788 157 tranq
1067 0.00615 123 qanat
1286 0.00488 97 qoph
1525 0.00410 82 queens
1562 0.00394 79 faqirs
1645 0.00378 75 squire
1675 0.00362 72 equate
1676 0.00362 72 equine
2056 0.00299 60 qintar
2605 0.00236 47 qindar
2945 0.00205 41 loaners
3120 0.00189 38 elation
3315 0.00173 35 aeriest
3454 0.00173 35 isolate
3558 0.00173 35 tranqs
3602 0.00158 31 atonies
4165 0.00142 28 qanats
4599 0.00126 25 outraise
4631 0.00126 25 qophs
4653 0.00126 25 routines
5163 0.00110 22 outlands
5224 0.00110 22 relation
5305 0.00110 22 treading
5944 0.00095 19 qintars
7013 0.00079 16 relations
7348 0.00063 13 alienated
9825 0.00047 9 figeaters
9850 0.00047 9 flaneries
11480 0.00047 9 tolidines
15976 0.00032 6 qindars
18662 0.00016 3 antilogies
19032 0.00016 3 autorotating
19361 0.00016 3 bedirtying
20574 0.00016 3 cerebrations
20662 0.00016 3 chernozems
21546 0.00016 3 curtseying
22085 0.00016 3 devastation
25905 0.00016 3 invocations
27503 0.00016 3 metersticks
30531 0.00016 3 recodifying
--
PoslDOoM (main words only)
94007 main words were played in 3732 games, an average of 25.2 words per
game. 14600 of the words (15.5%) were unique. Here is a list of the top
5 words of each length, together with all words containing a Q but no U.
Freq/ Freq/ Mean
Rank Game Million Score Word
1 0.22240 8829 23.3 qat
2 0.07235 2872 35.6 xi
3 0.06672 2649 25.9 qaid
4 0.06511 2585 25.7 jo
5 0.06136 2436 36.9 ex
6 0.05734 2276 38.6 ox
7 0.05439 2159 39.9 ax
8 0.04877 1936 25.3 qua
12 0.03805 1511 27.7 zee
17 0.03323 1319 27.0 zit
18 0.03215 1277 29.5 zoa
35 0.02599 1032 27.9 quod
43 0.02278 904 27.1 quit
45 0.02251 894 27.9 quid
48 0.02224 883 27.3 ziti
49 0.02197 872 32.2 qats
117 0.01501 596 30.3 tranq
128 0.01447 574 30.5 faqir
222 0.01125 447 15.8 oidia
234 0.01099 436 29.2 qanat
254 0.01045 415 28.5 roque
334 0.00884 351 30.7 qoph
477 0.00697 277 41.3 qaids
832 0.00482 191 34.1 qintar
897 0.00456 181 33.9 qindar
1109 0.00375 149 32.4 equine
1312 0.00322 128 18.1 agouti
1733 0.00268 106 24.4 outvie
2000 0.00241 96 74.7 seriate
2077 0.00214 85 67.9 antihero
2079 0.00214 85 59.6 atonies
2146 0.00214 85 71.8 enolase
2149 0.00214 85 73.0 erasion
2223 0.00214 85 72.6 isolate
2601 0.00188 74 76.1 jauntier
2710 0.00188 74 66.6 retained
2819 0.00161 64 61.2 aeration
2821 0.00161 64 65.3 aerolite
4941 0.00107 43 29.2 qanats
9285 0.00054 21 37.0 ineloquent
9371 0.00054 21 70.0 itinerant
10397 0.00054 21 28.5 qindars
10398 0.00054 21 50.0 qophs
10598 0.00054 21 75.0 reselling
10618 0.00054 21 75.0 retinulae
11340 0.00054 21 33.0 tranqs
11878 0.00027 11 39.0 abruption
11955 0.00027 11 68.0 adduction
12633 0.00027 11 45.0 ascendable
12696 0.00027 11 24.0 attractions
13244 0.00027 11 38.0 birthplace
14033 0.00027 11 21.0 chairwomen
16211 0.00027 11 113.0 existentialists
16339 0.00027 11 38.0 faqirs
18135 0.00027 11 28.0 incompetent
19621 0.00027 11 104.0 microcapsule
19702 0.00027 11 36.0 misadventures
20244 0.00027 11 28.0 nonregulated
20763 0.00027 11 32.0 overlending
21795 0.00027 11 91.0 qintars
--
PoslDOoM (all words)
181755 words were played in 3732 games, an average of 48.7 words per
game. 16086 of the words (8.9%) were unique. Here is a list of the top
5 words of each length, together with all words containing a Q but no U.
Freq/ Freq/
Rank Game Million Word
1 0.41747 8572 re
2 0.33012 6778 we
3 0.32583 6690 er
4 0.31860 6542 et
5 0.30975 6360 en
24 0.22454 4611 qat
93 0.06672 1370 qaid
94 0.06083 1249 joe
95 0.05734 1177 owe
96 0.05466 1122 ode
98 0.05386 1106 awe
101 0.04904 1007 qats
129 0.03055 627 ziti
132 0.02947 605 aqua
149 0.02599 534 quod
265 0.01688 347 qaids
322 0.01501 308 tranq
343 0.01447 297 faqir
502 0.01125 231 oidia
516 0.01099 226 qanat
677 0.00884 182 qoph
1151 0.00509 105 tranqs
1201 0.00482 99 qintar
1238 0.00456 94 faqirs
1267 0.00456 94 qindar
1342 0.00429 88 quinte
1452 0.00402 83 qophs
1828 0.00322 66 qanats
2242 0.00268 55 squired
2507 0.00241 50 seriate
2588 0.00214 44 antihero
2592 0.00214 44 atonies
2676 0.00214 44 enolase
2682 0.00214 44 erasion
3000 0.00188 39 alieners
3196 0.00188 39 jauntier
3324 0.00188 39 qindars
3335 0.00188 39 retained
3454 0.00161 33 aeration
4703 0.00134 28 qintars
5222 0.00107 22 dominates
5267 0.00107 22 emigrated
8659 0.00054 11 aerations
8875 0.00054 11 atropines
8884 0.00054 11 auditions
10810 0.00054 11 ineloquent
12327 0.00054 11 reversions
14548 0.00027 6 ascendable
14585 0.00027 6 astringent
14618 0.00027 6 attractions
14873 0.00027 6 barquettes
15213 0.00027 6 birthplaces
16573 0.00027 6 coprisoners
18535 0.00027 6 existentialists
20663 0.00027 6 incompetent
22277 0.00027 6 microcapsule
22361 0.00027 6 misadventures
22954 0.00027 6 nonregulated
-- John Chew <jjchew@math.utoronto.ca> (December 1994)