Scrabble Approves 'Genderqueer,' 'Ze,' and Other LGBTQ Terms

Even Scrabble is finally getting up-to-date with gender terms.

The New York Times reported that official international Scrabble dictionary has added 2800 new words, including “genderqueer,” “cisgender,” and gender neutral pronoun “ze.”

“Ze” is one of three two-letter words approved in the new update, and one that has the ability to be a game changer, according to the co-president of the North American Scrabble Players Association, John Chew.

“Whoever draws the Z tile is going to have a huge advantage,” he said, noting that this will be the third two-letter “z” word added since the early 1990s.

Some other words that were added in this update were “agender,” “transphobia,” and “misgender.”

On the less inclusive but still relevant to today’s culture side, “manspreading,” “bae,” and “incel” were also given the go-ahead.

The addition of a number of these words is tied to their approval by the Merriam-Webster dictionary last year.

Which really just goes to show the ripple inclusion can create — even if it’s just in Scrabble.