ODAL is valid in Collins, not in North America — 5 points
It depends on the list you play by. ODAL 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 5 points. Words with Friends does not accept it either.
Which word lists accept ODAL?
| 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: 39 / 100
Our own measure of how useful ODAL is to know. It scores 5 from 4 tiles, takes 4 hooks, and its letters make up 6.3% of the bag. How this number is calculated
Hooks for ODAL
Checked against OSPD, TWL, CSW, WWF. Takes an S, so it hooks onto plurals easily.
How ODAL scores
Face value of the 4 tiles in ODAL, before any board multiplier.
Tiles you need
| Letter | Needed | In the bag |
|---|---|---|
| o | 1 | 8 |
| d | 1 | 4 |
| a | 1 | 9 |
| l | 1 | 4 |
Drawing exactly these 4 tiles as an opening rack: 1 in 3,404.
What stands out about ODAL
- The same 4 tiles also spell 2 other words, so the rack is worth re-reading before you play it.
Counted from the four word lists we hold, not taken from anywhere else. How we calculate things
What does ODAL mean in Scrabble?
noun
Scotslegalhistorical
A form of land tenure, found chiefly in Orkney and Shetland, in which the owner holds the land outright with no feudal superior above them; also spelled udal.
Odal tenure traces back to old Norse law and meant that a family's right to land came from long, unbroken possession rather than from a grant by a lord or the crown, so an odal landholder answered to no feudal superior. The system survived in Orkney and Shetland long after feudal tenure took over the rest of Scotland. Legal writers still refer to odal or udal rights when discussing the history of those islands.
How ODAL is used
Chiefly historical and legal; found in Scottish land-law texts rather than everyday speech.
- The lawyer explained that the croft was still held by odal right.
- Odal tenure gave Orkney landowners a freedom feudal tenants lacked.
- Historians trace odal law back to the Norse settlers of Shetland.
- The old deed described the field as odal land free of any superior.
- Few estates in Scotland kept their odal status into modern times.
Written for this site: 1 meaning of ODAL and 5 example sentences, not copied from a published dictionary.
Anagrams of ODAL
The 4 tiles of ODAL in a different order — 2 found.
Words starting with ODAL
9 longer words begin with ODAL.
Words ending in ODAL
Showing 24 of 31 words that end in ODAL. Useful as a back hook: play ODAL onto a word already on the board.
Words with ODAL inside
Showing 24 of 34 words that contain ODAL somewhere in the middle. Words that start with ODAL are listed separately above, so nothing is repeated.
Shorter words from the letters in ODAL
Common questions about ODAL
- Is ODAL valid in Words with Friends?
- No. Words with Friends keeps its own list, separate from the Scrabble dictionaries, and ODAL is not in it.
- How many points is ODAL worth?
- ODAL is worth 5 points in Scrabble and 6 points in Words with Friends.
- What does ODAL mean?
- A form of land tenure, found chiefly in Orkney and Shetland, in which the owner holds the land outright with no feudal superior above them; also spelled udal.
- What letters can be added to ODAL?
- ODAL takes 4 hooks: 3 in front and 1 at the end.
Every word you can build from the 4 letters of ODAL:
Open ODAL in the Word Finder