Highest scoring single play in Scrabble

Under the North American rules, governed by the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (OSPD), the highest-scoring single play was the word QUIXOTRY, which earned carpenter Michael Cresta (USA) 365 points. The word CAZIQUES, feasible under the Official Scrabble Words International (or SOWPODS) rules, earned Saladin "Karl" Khoshnaw (Iraq/Germany) 392 points.

In America, Canada, Israel and Thailand, the game of Scrabble is governed by the American Tournament Word List (TWL), which is based on a modified version of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (OSPD). All other English-speaking countries rely on the Official Scrabble Words International (OSWI) book, which contains words from both the OSPD and the Official Scrabble Words (OSW) book; this is also known as SOWPODS, an abbreviation of OSPD and SOW.

Khoshnaw, an Iraqi Kurdi, learned to play Scrabble from his landlady while living as a student in Swindon, UK. He later worked as an academic and mathematician before moving to Germany. At a Scrabble tournament in Manchester on 11 April 1982, he played CAZIQUES (worth 28 points) but with the 10-point Q on a double-letter square, making the letter total 38. The word stretched across two triple-word squares (38 × 3 × 3 = 342), and because Khoshnaw had put down all seven letters from his rack, he received the 50-point bonus: 342 + 50 = 392 points.