According to the Scrabble dictionary, "za" is a word! - and so is trike

I didn't realize that "za" was a word until I read Margie Boule's article about a very successful and competitive kids Scrabble team in Oregon. In fact, I didn't know that Oregon had state Scrabble champs, either. In the past, when I played Scrabble, I didn't even have the "official dictionary" but now I do. It would have come in handy the time I played "trike" on a triple word score (the K is a high point letter - maybe 5 points?). My partner had never heard of a trike - where did she grow up, anyway? So I had to get support from the folks in the other room, all of whom had grown up with trikes, of course. But I was thinking of the child's tricycle - like this one, though I didn't have the fringe. And they were thinking of the motorcycle version!

Of course, trike is in the official Scrabble dictionary. Along with lots of words that begin with Q not followed by U - such as QAT. By the way, "za" is officially short for "pizza."

(Even Wikipedia explains about the Scrabble dictionary. But considering that it only originated in 1978 that's no surprise that I didn't have one at first, since I started playing Scrabble in 1960, I think. There's even an online Scrabble dictionary.)

Photo credit for the child's tricycle:
http://www.modernseniors.com/Toys/RadioFlyer/tricycle-j.jpg from Modern Seniors

Photo credit for the motorcycle Trike:
http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2f0j00JMeQdAHBETgtM/Trike-Motorcycle-GS250.jpg