Best Scoring Words

[Glebson]

Hello, Stephen! Hi, everyone!

Wanted to ask: I am currently competing, let's say, in this month's the longest word and best scoring word competition.

I got the word PARESTHESIA which is 11 letters long. Two guys got the word DISPASSIONS which is also 11 letters long. As I understand, I am ranked third after them due to the fact that the word DISPASSIONS is a higher scoring word (when equal in length, the higher scoring word goes first, as I get it).

So, my question is: why does the word DISPASSIONS bring you 20 points, whereas PARESTHESIA (which is at least not used more often and has same quantity of rare letters in it - none) gave me less than 18 (or 18, I don't remember)? How are these points calculated then?

[admin]

Hi Glebson -

Each word in our dictionary is assigned a value from 1 to 100 based on how often it is found within a standard sampling of English-language works. Dispassions (in the plural) is ranked as a word less-often used than Paresthesia, so it is scored higher.

[Nafets]

Oh, that's interesting, I'd always wondered how that worked. I suppose that, while not a perfect system, it probably works about as well as is possible.
On a slightly different note, I've also wondered what the highest possible score from a single word would be. The best I can think of is "exquisitenesses" which is the maximum length for sowpods, must be ultra-rare, and has point bonuses from the 'x' and the 'q'. I think that would come out to 33 points. What are the best words gotten so far, and how close do they come?