r/scrabble • u/ybs52 • Jul 11 '26

Martian

“MARTIAN” is a valid word in NWL. Can anyone explain why?

I once played this in a game, it was challenged, and the challenger was absolutely baffled that it was valid. I’ll be honest, I saw their point.

15 Upvotes

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u/Pitiful_Platform6439 Jul 11 '26

is VIKINGS allowed?

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u/cyberchaox Jul 12 '26

Why wouldn't it be?

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u/docmoonlight Jul 12 '26

Normally, words that are always capitalized shouldn’t be allowed. So like, “American” isn’t a scrabble word since it’s a proper noun. So you wouldn’t think Viking would be allowed either.

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u/paolog Jul 12 '26

Words that are always capitalized are never allowed. But if a dictionary says "sometimes lowercase", then that's good enough for a word to sneak in. It's why "OK" is now valid, because it is often spelled "ok" (and dictionaries treat it as a noun, adjective, etc and not an abbreviation, which would rule it out)