Each year on National Scrabble Day April 13th recognizes a game played around the world. Originally named Lexiko and then Criss-Cross Words, Alfred Mosher Butts eventually settled on the name Scrabble. The amateur artist and unemployed architect developed the word game in the midst of the depression. Still, it wasn’t until 1948, a final name change and a trademark that Butts finally began to produce the game.  

Scrabble is played with two to four players who score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15 x 15 grid.

In the United States, the name Scrabble is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. Scrabble is sold in 121 countries with 29 different language versions. Worldwide, over One hundred and fifty million sets have been sold with sets being found in nearly one-third of American homes.

• 1984 – Scrabble became a daytime game show on NBC
• 2004 – Scrabble was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame
• Some cities sponsor Scrabble tournaments on the weekend closest to National Scrabble Day
• The word “scrabble” means to “grope frantically.”

HOW TO OBSERVE #NationalScrabbleDay

Call your friends and play a game or two of Scrabble! Mix it up, too. There are several ways to play the game if you want to change things up a bit. For example, if you’re spending time alone, Scrabble solitaire challenges you at your own game of words. Another version allows players to only play nouns but they earn bonus points for playing nouns that are both a proper noun and an approved Scrabble word. 

Once you’ve played a game, take the final board and create a crossword puzzle using this template. Develop hints to the words and see if others can solve the puzzle. 

Do you have fun alternative ways of playing the game? Use #NationalScrabbleDay to post on social media.

Looking for more fun? Try starting a family game night. Did you know there is a Monopoly Day? Find your favories…

NATIONAL SCRABBLE DAY HISTORY

National Scrabble Day commemorates the birth of Alfred Mosher Butts, born on April 13, 1899. However, our research had not identified the founder of the day.