NOVUM is valid in Collins, not in North America — 10 points
It depends on the list you play by. NOVUM is in Collins, used in the UK and most of the world, but it is not in the North American lists — so in a US or Canadian game an opponent can challenge it off the board. Worth 10 points. Words with Friends does not accept it either.
Which word lists accept NOVUM?
| Official Scrabble Players DictionaryUSA, Canada, Thailand | Not listed |
|---|---|
| Official Tournament and Club Word ListUSA, Canada, Thailand | Not listed |
| Collins Scrabble WordsEnglish in most countries | Valid |
| Words with FriendsZynga word list | Not listed |
Word power: 32 / 100
Our own measure of how useful NOVUM is to know. It scores 10 from 5 tiles, takes 1 hook, and its letters make up 4.4% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for NOVUM
Front hooks — 0
None.
Back hooks — 1
novumsChecked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How NOVUM scores
Face value of the 5 tiles in NOVUM, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| n | 1 | 6 |
| o | 1 | 8 |
| v | 1 | 2 |
| u | 1 | 4 |
| m | 1 | 2 |
Drawing exactly these 5 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 98,031.
What does NOVUM mean in Scrabble?
noun
historical
An old dice game, popular in Tudor and Elizabethan England, in which the main winning throws were nine and five.
Novum, sometimes called by its fuller Latin name novem quinque, meaning nine five, was a gambling game played with dice in England during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The game is mentioned by writers of the period, Shakespeare among them, as a common pastime at court and in taverns. Novum has since fallen entirely out of use, and the word now appears only in historical accounts of Renaissance games and gambling.
How NOVUM is used
Historical; found only in discussions of Renaissance-era games.
- Courtiers passed the evening playing novum for small stakes.
- Playgoers of the period would have recognised novum as a common tavern game.
- Historians describe novum as a forerunner of later dice games.
- The rules of novum rewarded throws of nine and five.
- Few people today have ever heard of novum.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of NOVUM and 5 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Words starting with NOVUM
1 longer words begin with NOVUM.
Shorter words from the letters in NOVUM
Common questions about NOVUM
- Is NOVUM valid in Words with Friends?
- No. Words with Friends keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries, and NOVUM is not in it.
- How many points is NOVUM worth?
- NOVUM is worth 10 points in Scrabble and 14 points in Words with Friends.
- What does NOVUM mean?
- An old dice game, popular in Tudor and Elizabethan England, in which the main winning throws were nine and five.
- What letters can be added to NOVUM?
- NOVUM takes 1 hook: 0 in front and 1 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 5 letters of NOVUM:
Open NOVUM in the Word Finder