Editing Scrabble (section)

===Challenges===
{{Main|Challenge (Scrabble)}}
The penalty for a successfully challenged play is nearly universal: the offending player removes the tiles played and forfeits their turn. (In some online games, an option known as "void" may be used, wherein unacceptable words are automatically rejected by the program. The player is then required to make another play, with no penalty applied.)

The penalty for an unsuccessful challenge (where all words challenged in the play are deemed valid) varies considerably, including:

* "Double Challenge", in which an unsuccessfully challenging player must forfeit the next turn. This penalty governs North American (NASPA-sanctioned) OWL tournament play,<ref name=":0" /> and is the standard for North American, Israeli, and Thai clubs. Because loss of a turn generally constitutes the greatest risk for an unsuccessful challenge, it provides the greatest incentive for a player to "bluff", or play a "phony" – a plausible word that they know or suspect to be unacceptable, hoping their opponent will not challenge it. Or a player can put down a legal word that appears to be a phony hoping the other player will incorrectly challenge it and lose their turn.
* "Single Challenge"/"Free Challenge", in which no penalty whatsoever is applied to a player who unsuccessfully challenges. This is the default rule in Ireland and the United Kingdom, as well as for many tournaments in Australia, although these countries do sanction occasional tournaments using other challenge rules.
* Modified "Single Challenge", in which an unsuccessful challenge does not result in the loss of the challenging player's turn, but is penalized by the loss of a specified number of points. The most common penalty is 5 points. The rule has been adopted in Singapore (since 2000), Malaysia (since 2002), South Africa (since 2003), New Zealand (since 2004), and Kenya, as well as in contemporary [[World Scrabble Championship]]s (since 2001) and North American (NASPA-sanctioned) Collins tournaments, and particularly prestigious Australian tournaments.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.scrabble.org.au/ratings/selective/2018AMSC.html|title=Australian Masters and State Team Challenge|website=www.scrabble.org.au|access-date=2018-05-01|archive-date=May 2, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180502064327/http://www.scrabble.org.au/ratings/selective/2018AMSC.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Some countries and tournaments (including Sweden) use a 10-point penalty instead. In most game situations, this penalty is much lower than that of the "double challenge" rule. Consequently, such tournaments encourage greater willingness to challenge and discourage playing dubious words.

Under tournament rules, a player may request to "hold" the opponent's play to consider whether to challenge it, provided that the opponent has not yet drawn replacement tiles. The holding player's clock still runs, and the opponent cannot draw replacement tiles for 15 seconds or until the hold is released but may draw tiles afterward (which must be kept separate). If a player successfully challenges, the opponent must reveal any replacement tiles before returning them to the bag.