ENABLE
                              


The Enhanced North American Benchmark LExicon (ENABLE) is the most
thoroughly researched, and therefore the most authoritative word list
and reference available for Scrabble players. The word list file itself
retains the name WORD.LST, to retain compatibility with the WORDY
utilities (http://personal.riverusers.com/~thegrendel/wordy530.zip)
originally written for it. The word list is in plain ASCII format,
unencrypted, and is placed in the Public Domain for anyone to use as
they see fit. It is non-proprietary, free, and freely available for
any legal use.  Moreover, it is "open source" in the sense that the
researcher and compiler, Alan Beale, carefully explains and elucidates
the reasoning that has influenced his judgments on which words belong in
the list and why.  The first edition of ENABLE has become a recognized
standard and a benchmark for the Scrabble community. This revised
millennial edition continues in the same proud tradition.

Since the release of its first edition, in the fall of 1997, ENABLE has
become something of a de facto standard for electronic word lists used
by word gamers. It has been adopted by developers and programmers for
interactive on-line word game servers and word construction (anagramming)
software.

The master word list in ENABLE, WORD.LST, is *not* the so-called TWL98,
a proprietary word list prepared by an "official" dictionary committee
with a corporate agenda. On the contrary, it is an even more accurate
and authoritative reference for the serious Scrabble player.  It is
primarily the result of a single unifying vision, that of Alan Beale,
who dedicated countless hours to research.  ENABLE therefore represents
not merely a superior alternative to the OSPD/TWL, it threatens to
supplant and replace it, to squeeze the very life out of it in a process
of Darwinian selection.


ENABLE reflects the changes to the OSPD that went into place as of
January 1, 1998, so many "old friends", such as "vin" and "da" have now
disappeared. The original WORD.LST contained 100,701 words, this enhanced
Y2K update has 173,528.  This word list would not have been possible
without the help of a number of people in the Scrabble community, most
notably Alan Beale for his tireless research, and to them go my thanks.
This revised second edition of ENABLE incorporates the words added to
the new printings of MW10, as well as Alan Beale's research into obscure
plurals and other lexicographic arcana.

Ample documentation for the claims of accuracy and authoritativeness
of the ENABLE list is contained in the SUPP2K.ZIP archive, particularly
in the file TWL_ENAB.DOC. This file contains a detailed listing of the
differences between the ENABLE list and the DOOM/TWL98 list, including
sources and justifications for the additions and corrections.

The master word list, WORD.LST, contains all 70 of the MW10 "also
called" words. These are the italicized entries in the MW10 hidden in
definitions of other words with the notation "also called". An example
of this is found in the entry for "streelight", wherein is the notation
"also called streetlamp". Therefore, the word "streetlamp" belongs in
the ENABLE WORD.LST. A complete list of these "also called" words, with
appropriate cross-references, may be found in the ALSO.LST file in the
SUPP2K.ZIP archive. Note that the DOOM/TWL98 list opened this particular
"can of worms" with the adoption of the word "starfruit", found in the
definition of "carambola". Nevertheless, the DOOM/TWL98 list still omits
some of the plurals of these words.

This edition of ENABLE benefits from the painstaking research on obscure
plurals done by Alan Beale. He unearthed a number of explicit plurals in
MW10 that OSPD and other lists omit (see PLURALS.DOC in the supplementary
archive). This alone gives ENABLE a significant advantage over OSPD
and TWL.

In contrast to other word lists, the ENABLE list has not been crippled
by being limited to words under an arbitrary length. The ENABLE list is
eminently suitable for most word games, such as Anagrams and Clabbers,
and for crossword puzzle solving, rather than just for Scrabble. A great
deal of research has gone into removing this limitation, however the
list is much the better for it.

The file SIGWORD.LST is a list of the 1024 words in WORD.LST that do not
appear in the OSPD or MW10, but either appear in other standard sources
or are words the ENABLE maintainers believe worthy of lexicographic
recognition. These "signature words" distinguish this list from others. Of
course, those wishing to may delete the SIGWORD.LST words from the
WORD.LST in order to obtain a more "standardized" listing. This may be
accomplished simply and quickly using the UNIX "comm" utility in the
following manner:

             comm -23 word.lst sigword.list > word.lst.new.

This will create the file "word.lst.new" with the signature words deleted.

As of this update, it is no longer necessary for DOS and Windows users to
resort to manually editing the WORD.LST file to remove the SIGWORD.LST
words.  Alan Beale's MAKELIST utility, distributed in the supplementary
archive, provides the opportunity to build custom lists by combining
selected auxiliary lists from the ENABLE2K supplement with the base list.
Even UNIX users may find MAKELIST more convenient than running built-ins
from the command line or a script.





The ENABLE master word list, WORD.LST, is herewith formally released
into the Public Domain. Anyone is free to use it or distribute it in
any manner they see fit. No fee or registration is required for its
use nor are "contributions" solicited (if you feel you absolutely
must contribute something for your own peace of mind, the authors of
the ENABLE list ask that you make a donation on their behalf to your
favorite charity). This word list is our gift to the Scrabble community,
as an alternate to "official" word lists. Game designers may feel free
to incorporate the WORD.LST into their games. Please mention the source
and credit us as originators of the list. Note that if you, as a game
designer, use the WORD.LST in your product, you may still copyright and
protect your product, but you may *not* legally copyright or in any way
restrict redistribution of the WORD.LST portion of your product. This
*may* under law restrict your rights to restrict your users' rights,
but that is only fair.

It is to be expected that the maintainers of the OSPD and TWL will
benefit from the research done for ENABLE. If these people incorporate
portions of ENABLE into their lists, this may compromise the copyrighted
proprietary status of those lists.

The accuracy of the WORD.LST is due, in great part, to the herculean
efforts of Alan Beale. He has put in many hours of multi-dictionary
research in checking conjugations, inflections, plurals, and obscure
parts of speech of thousands of words. In every sense of the word,
he is as much the father of the word list as anyone.

Ross Beresford (ross@bryson.demon.co.uk) has incorporated the WORD.LST
from the first edition of ENABLE into his North  American Scrabble version
of his excellent TEA word list generation / analysis program. See his
home page, http://www.bryson.demon.co.uk/, for word list info and more
details of TEA.



WORD.LST (pronounced "word-dot-list") is the generic term for the
ASCII-format word file released into the Public Domain as a standard and
a reference for crossword-type games.  As laptop and palmtop computers
have become more common and affordable, it is convenient to use the
WORD.LST in conjunction with utilities such as SEARCH.EXE and JUDGE.EXE
(parts of the WORDY package) to adjudicate disputes in word  game
competitive play. The OSPD in its various versions and incarnations
is  not particularly well  suited for this application as it is poorly
organized, sometimes difficult to interpret, and clumsy to use (try
locating the word PELVES in the printed OSPD, for example). Furthermore,
the WORD.LST is free from corporate politics and agendas, scheming
and conniving, committee wrangling, "politically correct" appeasement,
compromising, greed, and all other such nonsense. The WORD.LST is yours,
word game players! Use it.  Help keep it updated and corrected. Distribute
it (you do *not* need permission to do so, but tell us about it)!







Scrabble and OSPD are trademarks owned by Milton Bradley, a division of
Hasbro.

Windows is a trademark of the Microsoft Corporation.


WORDY is *not* copyrighted and is *not* a trademark. It may be found
under 'W' in any dictionary, just as scrabble, the verb, may be found
under 'S'.  The make-believe word "hasbro" may be whimsically defined as
"possessing a male sibling" (named Milton, I guess).

ENABLE is not a trademark. WORD.LST is not a trademark.

   This whole trademark business has been taken to ridiculous extremes.





Disclaimer: Neither I nor Alan Beale is in any way associated with the
so-called "Official Dictionary Committee", nor with the NSA in any of its
guises or avatars (i.e., neither the National Scrabble Association nor
the National Security Agency). We did not and do not have direct access
to the so-called TWL98, and the ENABLE list is not derivative from it. We
do believe, however, the the ENABLE list is more thoroughly researched,
more accurate, and therefore a more authoritative and generally useful
replacement for the TWL98 list.



Important note:
The supplementary archive, SUPP2K.ZIP, is a valuable adjunct to ENABLE. It
supplies additional word lists, Alan Beale's "makelist" utility for combining
and expurgating lists, and the must-read documentation files on word list
research on plurals. The resources in this supplement make possible creating
one's own "SOWPODS" list, creating custom combined lists, or even lists with
"nasty words" removed, suitable for family use.





                                 M\Cooper
                         thegrendel@theriver.com
              http://personal.riverusers.com/~thegrendel/