Words removed from OTCWL2018
Word lists are revised, and revisions remove words as well as adding them. These twelve were dropped from the Official Tournament and Club Word List in its 2018 edition, and stopped being playable in North American tournaments from 1 March 2019.
Where they stand in our database today
This table is not copied from the original announcement — it is read from our own dictionary each time the page loads. If a word has since come back, or is still valid somewhere else, that shows up here.
| Word | CSW | TWL | OSPD | WWF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAZHER | no | no | no | no |
| CAZHEST | no | no | no | no |
| DREKKISH | no | no | yes | no |
| HALIOTES | no | no | no | no |
| HALIOTISES | no | no | no | no |
| INAPTER | yes | no | no | no |
| INAPTEST | yes | no | no | no |
| RABIESES | no | no | no | no |
| SAPIDER | yes | no | no | no |
| SAPIDEST | yes | no | no | no |
| SUETIER | yes | no | no | no |
| SUETIEST | yes | no | no | no |
Why a word gets removed
Most removals are corrections rather than judgements. A word gets into a list because a source dictionary carried it, and comes out when that source drops it or when the entry turns out to have been a mistake. Several of the words above are comparative or superlative forms — inapter, sapidest, suetier — that were generated by rule rather than actually attested.
What this means for study
If you memorised a word list years ago, some of it is now wrong. That is not a reason to distrust lists; it is a reason to check against a current one rather than against memory.
It is also why we record which edition each of our lists comes from and when we last checked it — see the TWL page. A word finder that cannot tell you how old its data is cannot tell you whether its answer still applies.
The reverse happens too: revisions add far more words than they remove. Anything you look up in our dictionary shows all four lists at once, so you can see exactly where a word stands rather than getting a single yes or no that hides which game you are playing.
Two editions have come and gone since
OTCWL2018 is no longer the current North American list. It was followed by NWL2020 and then by NWL2023, the sixth edition, which has been in force for tournament play since early 2024 and added more than four and a half thousand words to its predecessor. Collins moved on as well: the current international list is CSW24.
So the twelve words above are a snapshot of one revision, not the last word on any of them. That is precisely why the table on this page is read from our database at load time rather than copied from the 2018 announcement.
Removals come in two very different kinds
| Kind | Why it happens | How common |
|---|---|---|
| Correction | The source dictionary dropped the entry, or an inflected form was generated by rule and never actually attested — the twelve above are mostly this | Rare, a handful per edition |
| Policy | The word is a slur or otherwise unwanted in a family game. Collins removed three such words plus their inflections in its 2024 revision | Rare, and usually announced separately |
The distinction matters if you are wondering whether a word “might come back”. Corrections sometimes do, when the evidence turns up. Policy removals do not.
Common questions
Can a removed word still be played anywhere? Often yes — the lists are independent. A word dropped from the North American list may still be perfectly valid in Collins, and the table above shows exactly that, per list, as of today.
How often are the lists revised? Every few years. NASPA's recent editions were 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2023; Collins revised in 2021 and 2024. Nothing changes between revisions, which is why an old memorised list stays mostly right and quietly wrong in a few places.
Where do I check what is current? Our dictionary answers for all four lists, and which dictionary applies where lists the current editions, their sizes and their publishers.