National Scrabble Day is on Tuesday, April 13, 2027, and it falls on April 13 every year. It celebrates the classic crossword board game and its inventor, Alfred Mosher Butts, who was born on this date in 1899. Pull out the board and challenge someone to a game.
When Is National Scrabble Day?
It’s always April 13, Butts’ birthday. No organization has been documented as founding the day, but the date ties it directly to the game’s creator.
Who Invented Scrabble?
Alfred Mosher Butts, an architect from Poughkeepsie, New York. He was out of work during the Great Depression and decided to invent a game. “I thought, ‘I’ll see if I can’t invent a game,'” he later recalled, according to the Poughkeepsie Public Library.
He mixed anagrams with crossword puzzles and refined the game through the 1930s. He called it Lexiko, then Criss Cross Words. To decide how many of each letter to include, he counted letters on the front page of The New York Times.
How Scrabble got its name
Game companies turned Butts down. Entrepreneur James Brunot then helped refine the rules and renamed it Scrabble, a word meaning “to grope frantically.” The name was trademarked in 1948.
Sales started slowly: in 1949, the Brunots made 2,400 sets and lost $450. In 1952, they licensed Selchow & Righter to sell the game, and demand took off. By legend, the president of Macy’s found the game on vacation and ordered sets for his store, and demand soon outran supply.
Selchow & Righter bought the trademark in 1972. It passed to Coleco in 1986, and after Coleco’s 1989 bankruptcy, Hasbro acquired the game. Butts died in April 1993 at age 93.
Why Celebrate Scrabble?
Few board games have lasted as long. The National Scrabble Association says more than 100 million sets have sold worldwide. The day honors a game that builds vocabulary, rewards strategy and still brings families to the table.
It’s also a classic inventor’s story. A man without steady work turned a newspaper’s letter counts into a game that outlived him.
How to Celebrate National Scrabble Day
- Host a game night: set up two boards and rotate players for a mini tournament.
- Learn the two-letter words: short words like QI, ZA and XU are allowed in official word lists and score big.
- Teach a kid to play: drop the timer and let younger players use a dictionary.
- Try a theme game: only words about food, travel or animals count.
- Find a club: look for a local Scrabble club or a library game night.
- Play online: challenge a faraway friend on an official digital version.
- Visit Poughkeepsie: the inventor’s hometown library has told his story for Scrabble fans.
Scrabble Basics
A standard game has 100 letter tiles, including two blanks that can stand for any letter but score zero. Each player draws seven tiles. Using all seven in one turn earns a 50-point bonus on top of the word’s score.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the word “scrabble” mean?
To grope or scramble frantically, which matches the feeling of digging through the tile bag.
Where was Alfred Butts from?
Poughkeepsie, New York. He grew up on Academy Street and graduated from Poughkeepsie High School in 1917.
When did Scrabble become popular?
In the early 1950s. After the Brunots licensed it to Selchow & Righter in 1952, demand grew faster than they could make sets.
Is there a Scrabble world championship?
Yes. Competitive players compete in national and world championships, using official tournament word lists.