Gender-neutral pronoun 'ze' used by transgender people to be recognised in British Scrabble rules for first time

More than 4,500 new words will be added to the British Scrabble dictionary next year.
PA Wire/PA Images
Bonnie Christian17 December 2018

A gender-neutral pronoun will feature in the British Scrabble dictionary for the first time.

The next update in May will give diehard fans 4,500 new words to play with, including the word ‘ze’ used by people who are transgender or do not identify with a gender.

Speaking to The Telegraph ahead of the game’s 70th anniversary at the weekend, the Chairman of the World English Language Scrabble Players Association (WESPA), Elie Dangoor said the high scoring potential of the word will mean its likely to be a common play.

“Ze will be a regular word in the game - it will be used much more than other new words because it will score highly. I will try it whenever I can,” he said.

On its own, the word can deliver a score of 11 points.

Many of the new words will be taken from modern slang and social media, as well as reflecting linguistic changes over the past four years and additions to the Collins’ English Dictionary.

Mr Dangoor said older players were starting to embrace new words more readily.

He told The Telegraph: “When we had ‘lolz’ they turned their noses up at text speak, but now they are much happier to play those words.

“Part of the education can be a continuum - you want to learn [the words] to score more points so they become part of your language knowledge.”

Other words that will make it onto the board next year will include “bae,” which means boyfriend and girlfriend, and “zen” used as an adjective to mean peaceful.

The word “pluto,” previously banned due to rules on proper nouns, will now be included to mean “to lose importance” after its demotion from planet to dwarf planet.

The word “ew,” used to express disgust or distaste will enter the dictionary along with nduja, which is an Italian spicy salami.

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