You are unlikely to hear 'talaq', 'umu' and 'gapo' uttered in in everyday conversation.
But the words for a type of muslim divorce, a Polynesian earth over and a South American forest near a river, allowed Craig Beevers, 33, from Teesside, to be crowned World Scrabble Champion.
In doing so, Beevers became only the second English player to claim the title and the first since Mark Nyman in 1993.
In a tense final at the Excel Centre in London, Beevers, who organises Scrabble tournaments for a living, beat the American Chris Lipe by 440 points to 412 in the final game. it sealed a 3-1 victory for the Englishman in the best-of-five match.
Proceedings in the decisive fourth game had been more or less neck and neck until Beevers' decisive play of 'talaq'. The word scored 42 points, after which there was no realistic way back for Lipe, a relative newcomer from Clinton, New York, could win.
These are the words that allowed Craig Beevers, 33, from Teesside, to be crowned World Scrabble Champion.
Craig Beevers' words
Ventrous - adventurous (65)
Gaieties - state of joyful exuberance or merriment (62)
Diorite - igneous rock (68)
Umu - Polynesian earth oven (24)
Zit - spot (36)
Kaw - Alternate word for Kansa, a member of a North American Indian people formerly of eastern Kansas, now living mostly in northern Oklahoma (34)
Gleet - inflammation of the urethra with a slight discharge of thin puss and mucus (24)
Villa - (especially in continental Europe) a large and luxurious country house in its own grounds (14)
Talaq - Type of Muslim divorce (42)
Gapo - South American forest near a river (27)
Barfs - an attack of vomiting (26)
Chris Lipe's words
Hyena - doglike African mammal (30)
Whit - very small part or amount (30)
Taj - tall conical cap worn by a dervish (28)
Xenic - of, relating to, or employing a culture medium containing one or more unidentified organisms (60)
Fond - to like (32)
Bough - main branch of a tree (22)
Directer - alternate, US spelling of director (72)
Mop - implement consisting of a bundle of thick loose strings or a sponge attached to a handle, used for wiping floors or other surfaces (26)
Lorn - lonely and abandoned (51)
Lyres - stringed instrument like a small U-shaped harp with strings fixed to a crossbar (36)
Dense - closely compacted in substance (27)
Et - forming nouns which were originally diminutives (30)
Beevers had raced into a 2-0 lead, but a mistake in the third game, in which Beevers opted not to play 'updrags', a portmanteau of 'up and 'drags', allowed Lipe to reduce his arrears to 2-1.
But Beevers made it over the line in the fourth board with words including 'ventrous', an archaic synonym of 'adventurous' scoring 65 points, 'gleet', inflammation of the urethra with a slight discharge of thin puss and mucus scoring 24, and 'diorite', an igneous rock, for 69 points.
It brought to a close four days of intense competition, between 100 players from 25 countries, at the World Scrabble Championships 2014, the 13th edition of the bi-annual tournament first held in 1991.
For Beevers, who takes home a cheque for £3,000, it is also the culmination of a Scrabble-playing career that began after he dropped out of a Maths degree at the University of Sheffield, where, the champion said, he had spent most of his time in the computer room playing online word games, including Scrabble, because he found the course "too abstract".
While occasionally unemployed, he slowly got into the real form of the game in the following years, and gradually began to enter, and win, competitions.
Beevers, who was the British Scrabble Champion in 2009 and was also crowned champion of the Channel 4 words and numbers game-show Countdown in 2007, said he was "absolutely thrilled" and "relieved" to win.
"Obviously I am delighted. it was stressful really, when you're tired after four days of tough matches, when you know you're not playing your best.
"I slipped up in the third, so it was a relief to get decent tiles in the fourth and to get over the line."
Remarkably, the new champion said he had played less Scrabble in the past year than in previous years, because he had moved in with his girlfriend, Karen, 31, and was concentrating on organising, rather than playing in, tournaments.
He added: "She doesn't really play. We have only played each other once, and it was pretty one-sided."
