Word definitions

Every played word in the turn log is tappable. Tap one to open the definition sheet:

What gets looked up

The definition sheet opens for the main word of the play. If the play formed cross-words (hooks, parallels), those appear as small chips under Also formed this turn — tap a chip to switch the lookup to that word without closing the sheet.

The chips carry a subtle tint in the player’s avatar color so the sheet visually stays “this player’s turn.”

Where definitions come from

scrabbleTracker looks up definitions in priority order:

1. OSPD7 — the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary glosses; brief, purpose-built for Scrabble play
2. WordNet — Princeton’s lexical database (CC BY)
3. Wiktionary — community-curated dictionary (CC BY-SA)

The source of the displayed definition appears in small text at the bottom of the sheet so you know where the gloss came from.

Independent of the game dictionary

A word’s legality in a game is per-game — it depends on which dictionary the game was started with. A word’s meaning is a fact that doesn’t change between games. So definitions live in their own lookup, separate from the dictionary that validated the play.

This means a word you played in an ENABLE-only game can still pull a gloss from OSPD7 if one exists. The sheet shows what we know about the word, regardless of which list it appeared in for that particular game.

Honest 404s

We don’t invent meanings. If no source has a definition for the word you tapped, the sheet says so directly — “We don’t have a definition for this one. It still counts in your game; the meaning just isn’t in our dictionary.” No fabricated etymology, no “did you mean,” nothing that could mislead the table about whether the play was valid.

Mobile-friendly

The sheet opens as a bottom sheet on phones (Esc closes it on keyboard) and respects prefers-reduced-motion for users who’ve opted out of animation.