Are “qrating” (Q rating) and “psandqs” (“Watch your p’s and q’s”) allowed?
Just one-word answers are allowed. No phrases.
No U at all? Or just no U following the Q? If so, then there’s burqa (the Muslim garment).
qoph
Here’s a more complete list of Q without U words for Scrabble players. I don’t know what dictionary that’s based on though. I love this bit:
Hasbro doesn’t mention “burqa” on the list of Q-without-U words posted earlier in this thread, but does seem to accept the word when you type it in their own dictionary search.
BURQA appears to be one of the words added to the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary 4th edition (2005). That’s the edition which introduced QI and ZA. So make sure you know which dictionary you’re playing with.
I’ve never played Scrabble “Seriously”, but a lot of the words I’ve seen here are, well, foreign and it’s been my understanding that such things weren’t generally permitted in Scrabble?
4th edition of the OSPD, which came out in 2005
It’s apparently based on the British Scrabble dictionary, since several of the words they mention (WAQF, NIQAB, QORMA, TALAQ, etc.) aren’t in the American OSPD.
OK, it appears that if this source is to be trusted, these Q-without-U words were added in the OSPD, 4th edition.
QI
QIS
BURQA
BURQAS
QADI
QADIS
QABALA
QABALAH
QABALAS
QABALAHS
MBAQANGA
What I don’t understand is why that Hasbro word list, which does contain QI and QABALA, etc., does not have BURQA.
Maybe it is because “BURQA” does contain a “U”.
:smack:
However, in my defense, they do list QIVIUT in that list, so it’s inconsistent.
I suspect someone took a list of Scrabble words in which Q is not followed by U, editted it down to make a “Q without U at all” list, and missed QIVIUT while spotting BURQA (and SUQ and UMIAQ).
I’m confused. I thought Scrabble wasn’t supposed to allow foreign words.
It is to laugh. Scrabble is incredibly inconsistent in this regard.
QAT and QOPH are my go-to words, along with QI (of course). I just now played QUEUE on a TWS, though (FB Scrabble). 
They don’t, but the line between what is a “foreign” word and what isn’t is not exactly clear. After all, English is built up with borrowed words from many languages
Also, they don’t allow proper nouns, but words that have judged to become common nouns or verbs-- like XEROX or FEDEX, for example, are allowed.
ETA: as Ogre says, it’s really hard to know which ones have been deemed to be Anglicized or common, and which haven’t. You really have to basically just study word lists, and be aware of what dictionary is being used. For example, the current OSPD doesn’t allow vulgarities and other “offensive” words. For example, FUCK and JEW (as in “to jew” somebody) are not allowed, according to the OSPD 3rd and 4th edition (I believe earlier editions allowed both). However, tournament Scrabble, so far as I understand (I’ve never actually played tournament Scrabble–just online versions with tournament rules), use expanded dictionaries that allow these words.
Did you know French doesn’t have a word for “entrepreneur”?
I mean, if “qi” or “burqa” aren’t English words, then what is the English word for the life-force studied in Chinese mysticism, or for the full-body garment conservative Muslim women wear?
Where I went to college (Univ of Tulsa), ZA was in fairly common usage as early as 1976. I thought at the time it was popularized by kids from the Chicago suburbs.
My guess would be a foreign word is acceptable if there is no english version equivalent, meaning that if you wanted to convey the meaning of the word in english then the “foreign” word would be used in common speech because there is no other way to do it.
good point. I know words for foreign currency are accepted words, like “pesos”, “francs”, and “lira”. Spell-checker does not highlight these words when typed in MS Word.