Can you use name of month in Scrabble?

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Before players begin a Scrabble game, they have to agree on the dictionary to use if a dispute arises about a word being misspelled or used incorrectly. The dictionary is the arbitrator such that it has the final say whether or not a word is legitimate to be played in Scrabble.

However, the list of approved words excludes capitalized words, suffixes, and prefixes, words that require hyphen or apostrophe, proper nouns with one meaning, abbreviations, and words that outline ethnicity or racism. 

Can you use the name of a month in Scrabble? No, the names of months are proper nouns that should always be capitalized in a sentence. Month names will typically appear as proper nouns with no other meaning besides being a name of a month, therefore they are not useable words in the game Scrabble. 

However, some words like MARCH, MAY and AUGUST are useable because they have other meanings that act as a adjective or verb.

The word “may”, the fifth month of a year, can be used as a verb in an English sentence, which means seeking permission to do something. It also serves as an auxiliary verb to express the presence of possibility, which makes “may” a legal word to be played in Scrabble. 

The name “march” can also serve as a verb in a sentence, implying an act of walking systematically, especially by soldiers and bands when entertaining people in a ceremony.

Furthermore, “august” is another name that someone can play in Scrabble because it also serves as an adjective besides being a month name. The adjective august describes noble or venerability when talking of high social classes. 

A month as an adjective or verb is acceptable, and hence legal to play in Scrabble. Bottom line, the determining factor is the Scrabble dictionary as long as a player can find the word in the wordlist, it’s legal to be played in the game. 

Are month’s names allowed in Scrabble?

Three out of the 12 names of months are allowed in Scrabble, which means that nine names are invalid whenever they are played on a Scrabble board. The reason is that the nine months appear as proper nouns that must always be capitalized when they appear in a sentence. 

The nine month names not allowed in Scrabble are January, February, April, June, July, September, October, November, and December.

Can June be used in Scrabble?

No, June is a proper noun used to name a person or month. According to Scrabble’s official rules, since proper nouns always appear capitalized whenever they appear in an English statement, a player cannot play them in Scrabble. 

Any proper nouns accepted in the Scrabble game must have another meaning, using them more often in common language. They cease from being proper nouns to common adjectives or verbs. 

Unfortunately for June, it’s just a pronoun, and nothing more! Therefore, it will always appear capitalized in a sentence, making it invalid in Scrabble.

What words are not allowed in Scrabble?

The original Scrabble game instructions banned a list of words that prompted serious debate. The excluded words include:

• Words that were considered racial bring ethnic differences. For instance, “Shiksha” is derogatory in the Jewish language. 
• Abusive or curse words: For instance, words like f**k, but some words may be abusive but have another meaning. A good example is the word “bitch” which means a female dog.
• Proper nouns always appear capitalized in a sentence: For instance, name of names of people. places, brands, days of the week, and months.
• Abbreviations, though not all of them as per the new Scrabble dictionary version. 
• Words that appear with hyphens or apostrophes in scrabble dictionary.
• Slang words that are not found in the dictionary agreed upon by all players in the match.
• Foreign words have not been adopted in the English language or haven’t been included in the official Scrabble dictionary.
• Prefixes and suffixes stand alone in an English phrase. 
• One-letter words.

Months in Scrabble: Conclusion 

Even though proper nouns are banned from Scrabble games, some words have multiple meanings, making them common words used as adjectives or verbs in the English language. Those words have found their way in the Scrabble game, and they form part of the approved word list of Scrabble dictionaries.

Proper nouns accepted in Scrabble must have another meaning besides being proper nouns. As a result, they must sometimes appear in lowercase as verbs or adjectives in a sentence, making them valid words in the board game.

The tool which has the final say of which words are allowed or not is the Scrabble dictionary. The approved wordlist needs to be decided by all the players who want to play the game before beginning. 

Nine names of months are not useable in the game Scrabble because they are only considered as pronouns. The list includes January, February, April, June, July, September, October, November, and December.

The words MARCH, MAY and AUGUST are months, but they are legal words to play in Scrabble because they have other meanings as adjectives and verbs. Since they are not only used as proper nouns, they can be played in the game.

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