# Scrabble **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 15, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble/161476 "2003-03-15T00:57:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KontagiousKaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ee59a6/32.png) [@KontagiousKaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KontagiousKaren)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble/161476/1 "2003-03-15T00:57:44Z")
I love scrabble and i play it all the time. i was wondering, how does scrabble make you smarter? i was watching somehting on mtv (i think that’s what it was, i think it was true life) but the people did drugs and they were told to play scrabble because it would make them smarter, how does it make them smarter? (sorry if confusing) ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble/161476/2 "2003-03-15T01:01:18Z")
I don’t think scrabble-playing really makes you smarter. But like any mentally challenging game or puzzle, it lets you exercise your thought processes, so maybe it helps you think _faster_ rather than better. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble/161476/3 "2003-03-15T01:11:45Z")
Intellectual games of all sorts are good exercise for the brain. They won’t necessarily make you _smarter_ in a factual sense, but they can help you develop thought processes and a sense of strategy that can be applied to other situations. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble/161476/4 "2003-03-15T01:13:00Z")
Oh, and being able to stare at a bunch of letters and recognize a few words that you can spell with them isn’t easy. I know I had to play a lot of Scrabble before I was able to do it quickly (and I’m still not very good at it.) ---
**Author:** ![JonScribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3be4f8/32.png) [@JonScribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonScribe)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble/161476/5 "2003-03-15T01:17:07Z")
It makes you smarter by virtue of the fact that you aren’t watching the Fox News channel when playing Scrabble. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble/161476/6 "2003-03-15T06:06:57Z")
I just finished reading _Word Freak_ by Stefan Fatsis, a book about competitive Scrabble players (meaning those who play in tournaments, etc.) A very interesting book, and I recommend it to the OP if she happens to not have read it already :). Scrabble may increase your vocabulary. Many people try to memorize the list of all the two letter words legal in Scrabble. People in the book I mentioned above memorize lists and lists of words–all the three letter words, all the four letter words, etc. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they use them in conversation–the meanings are irrelavent, after all. All that matters is that they are in the dictionary and legal in the game. I think that if you practice playing Scrabble, you’ll get better at playing Scrabble. I’m not sure if it helps a lot in other tasks. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble/161476/7 "2003-03-15T08:54:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KontagiousKaren \* > **but the people did drugs and they were told to play scrabble because it would make them smarter** Odd, I wasn’t aware of any causal relation between normal drug use and stupidity, except perhaps during the actual period of intoxication. If that’s what you meant, though, it’s hard to see how playing Scrabble would help.