The strange, the bizarre and the unexpected

[DrPlacebo]

Unexpected compound word: got points for AIRSTONE and AIRSTONES.

Noun. A piece of aquarium furniture, traditionally limewood or porous stone, whose purpose is to diffuse oxygen gradually into the tank, eliminating the noise and large bubbles of conventional air filtration systems.

[Somervillain]

Apparently something can be RADIOSTERILIZED, but one cannot RADIOSTERILIZE it.

[Nylimb]

Thanks, BoggleOtaku. That sounds plausible. The Oxford English Dictionary lists that meaning, and also an obsolete use from the 1500s where it meant "To rain down, fall as rain.": https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?q=derain

[BoggleOtaku]

I found as obsolete spelling of deraign; maybe this definition was unintendedly left out of lexic.

[Nylimb]

In a recent game I saw that someone had played DERAIN and DERAINED. Unsurprisingly, the second word is defined at https://www.lexic.us/definition-of/derained as "Verb. (past of derain)". But the first is only defined as "Noun. French painter and exponent of fauvism (1880-1954).".

[DrPlacebo]

I didn't expect to get points for SMITHEREENING... thought SMITHEREEN was only a noun, but tried the gerund anyway and it counted.

[Naboka]

I was surprised to see that pluralising a word with the letter "s" could turn a 15 point word into a 26 point word. That was totally unexpected!

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Happens a lot. Especially with words ending with -ing/ings.

It can go the other way also, where removing an s from some common and wide words will make them ultra rare.

The longer the word, the greater the point differetial with the added or subtracted s.

[JJBeanie]

I was surprised to see that pluralising a word with the letter "s" could turn a 15 point word into a 26 point word. That was totally unexpected!

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[BoggleOtaku]

And you can RETAIN and even RETAINER but you can't TAIN. And you can RETILE and TILER but can't RETILER. But you can RETAILER at least.

[Nyannecca]

Similar to -less, I'm often surprised and amused by what you can and cannot "re" do. If you open a present and want to give it away, you can repackage, rewrap, readdress and regift it, but you cannot "rebox" it!

[BoggleOtaku]

I saw ABSENTMINDEDNESSES but I forgot to enter it in.

(I did get unadorned MINDEDNESSES.)

[Boulevardiere]

Reptiles and birds rejoice; TEATLESS is accepted. TREATLESS, however, is not. It's all a mystery to me.

[RussDNails]

Words are fun. Doglees, catless, birdless are all valid.

My favorite is toadless. Of course I'm biased since that's my long deceased pet toad in my avatar : )

[DrPlacebo]

I know this is really not surprising any more in light of the other -LESS words that count, but PIGLESS scores points.

[Indyanna]

I like when I get points for my typos.. sae, tas, ...ect