Why do the two dictionaries disagree?

Tournament is the ENABLE list, the public-domain list most word games are built on. Broad is derived from SCOWL and adds around 44,000 rarer, technical and dialect entries. A word in Broad but not Tournament is real but unlikely to be accepted in a game.

It says my word is valid but shows no definition. Why?

Definitions come from WordNet, which stores base forms. "Quirk" has an entry; "quirks" does not, though both are perfectly valid words. A missing definition is never a verdict on whether the word counts.

Do you check the official tournament word lists?

No, and deliberately. NWL and CSW are licensed products that cannot be redistributed, so this site uses public-domain and permissively licensed lists only. For a sanctioned game, the tournament list is the authority.

Is it a word?

Settle it. Type a word and see whether each dictionary accepts it, along with a definition when the word has one.

Word to check

Type a word to check it against both dictionaries.

Two dictionaries, two answers

A word can be real without being playable, so this reports each dictionary separately instead of collapsing them into a verdict. Tournament is the ENABLE list — about 168,000 words, public domain, and the list most word games are built on. Broad is derived from SCOWL and adds roughly 44,000 more: technical terms, dialect words, and entries too rare for a game list.

Valid in Broad but not Tournament is the interesting case. It means the word exists and is documented, but you would probably lose the challenge. Not found in either usually means a proper noun, an abbreviation, or a spelling that no reference list carries — none of which appear in either dictionary by design.

Why a valid word may have no definition

Definitions come from WordNet, which stores base forms. QUIRK has an entry; QUIRKS does not, because a plural is not a separate concept. The same goes for past tenses and comparatives — WALKED and TALLER are unimpeachable words with no entries of their own.

So a missing definition is never a judgement on the word. The dictionary verdict above it is the answer to “is this a word”; the definition is a bonus that happens to be available for around 54,000 of them.

What this is not

It is not the official word list for any sanctioned game. The tournament lists — NWL in North America, CSW elsewhere — are licensed products that cannot legally be redistributed, so this site does not carry them and never will. Where a sanctioned game is being played, its own list is the authority and this check will occasionally disagree with it.

For a friendly game, ENABLE is the closest public-domain equivalent and settles most arguments. Where the two differ, it is usually over recent additions: short words like QI and ZA were added to tournament lists in the 2000s and are absent from ENABLE, which is why they read as not found here.

Common questions

Why do the two dictionaries disagree?: Tournament is the ENABLE list, the public-domain list most word games are built on. Broad is derived from SCOWL and adds around 44,000 rarer, technical and dialect entries. A word in Broad but not Tournament is real but unlikely to be accepted in a game.
It says my word is valid but shows no definition. Why?: Definitions come from WordNet, which stores base forms. "Quirk" has an entry; "quirks" does not, though both are perfectly valid words. A missing definition is never a verdict on whether the word counts.
Do you check the official tournament word lists?: No, and deliberately. NWL and CSW are licensed products that cannot be redistributed, so this site uses public-domain and permissively licensed lists only. For a sanctioned game, the tournament list is the authority.