I ran into a question today, I believe in a mixed Global Challenge quiz, that asked what was the longest word that could be made using Scrabble tiles only. The answer contained more than 7 letters so it had to be an add-on construction. It was 11 letters long. Is someone good at that game that can explain why the following would not be a good answer?
First move: time
Second word (add-on): sen/time/nt
Third word (add-on again): sen/time/ent/alist

for a total of 15 letters and there are enough tiles of each letter in the bag to cover the uses.

The following from the Wikipedia entry for the game says that word size goes from 2 to 15, so how could an 11 letter word be the longest?:

That most certainly can be a word played, as far as I'm concerned. You may also be interested in this link, for some of the highest scores you can possibly obtain in one move in the game. It uses the word oxyphenbutazone, which is legally accepted by Scrabble, and is 15 letters long.

http://www.scrabulizer.com/blog/post/3

So that question must be incorrect, or using the context of the rest of the quiz, was asking for something slightly different (e.g. asking for the longest Scrabble word made from the tiles given from a rack possibly received from a previous question of the quiz).

Ask ozzz2002, he is the Scrabble expert here.

Theoretically, any 15-letter word would qualify. I have played many thousands of games and have only every seen ONE word of that length. The first word played was 'govern' and later that was extended to 'governmental', and finally it was prefixed by 'non' to extend from one border to the other. It looked rather impressive.

However, it is quite unusual to see any words longer than nine letters.

I once made quizzical in two moves. Second Z was a blank but it covered a triple word score.

When you cover TWO triple word scores, the score is quite impressive. Even if all your letters are single-pointers, you would get 122 points. Throw in a Q or Z on the double letter score and 200+ is not outside the realms of possibility.

A triple/triple is similar to a hole-in-one in golf...

So what you are saying, Greg, is(and correct me if I am wrong) I am pretty much a scrabble genius with my "quizzical" ?
Actually what I want to ask is , and it never occurred to me before, can you do that in one turn:(sen)time(nt). I mean can you add to a word in two places in one turn? If so that's really clever.

Good point Ren. I'm not the expert that Ozzz is but you have to lay your tiles in one unbroken line. Not sure if tiles already on the board count as 'your' tiles for that purpose

Also, 'sentimentalist' is 14 letters not 15 but that's besides the point for the purpose of the question.

According to the official Scrabble FAQ:

In SCRABBLE, it is acceptable to simply add one or more letters to a word, to either the front or back or to both the front and back.

aha

I once had the opportunity to place a word where the Z was on a triple letter, and the whole word of 8 letters extended to the triple word and the double word. As it turns out, however, my word was not acceptable according to a Scrabble dictionary. Oh well.

So sad...

I counted write but I tiped rong by adding an extry 'e' at ent! Sorry 'bout that.

Edit: Is making it Sen/time/nt/alists okay?

This board has obviously been setup but a score of 1830 for a single move is possible.

Wes is correct- as long as the tiles are played in a straight line, the tiles already on the board can be used. A well-known play in a Scrabble circles was when a Masters player found AUB(e)R(g)IN(e)S, a 10-letter word through three noncontiguous letters. I recently had an opponent do similar- she played AB(or)IGINE- 'or' was already on the board.

You are!

This contains the 11 letter word of the question. It is neither longest, highest score and only comes close to those accolades by being a root on a high score (not longest). Since sesquioxidizing has to be an add-on construction, it would be interesting to know the sequence of plays that formed it, oxidizing requiring more than 7 letters.

The sequence doesn't have to have the full "oxidizing". Using the link I found, the darker tiles are the ones added on... Words could be es, ox and zing. That leaves squiidi on the tile rack, that can be placed between the es, ox, and zing to make sesquioxidizing.

That was a question on Ask FunTrivia, not in a game. The first post (incorrectly) gave sesquioxide, but subsequent posts pointed out that there are many conceivable, if difficult to manage, 15-letter words possible.

Yes, it was a question there (too?). I thought I'd seen it in a quiz too with the same error about the longest (and highest score) word. That's why I came here. I added a reply to the Ask Fun Trivia responses to indicate it is sesquioxidizing and not sesquioxide that is the high score word. Boy the z adds a lot.

Technically, sesquioxidizing is not accepted by Scrabble, though sesquioxide is still incorrect regardless.

I would, however, like to say that I also noticed the question on AskFT shortly after seeing it in an hourly game as well. I cannot recall where I saw it, but it definitely was in both Ask and a game. I thought it was odd.

Maybe the person who posted it was trying to find out whether the question in the game was correct?

I just looked at the board that suggests that BENZOXYCAMPHORS can be played, but unfortunately there are already 93 tiles on the board, which means that the game is over before our player gets to play their 1900 point word and actually will lose 26 points, for holding BCHRsyz at the end.

Alan, I only count 66 tiles in play, which leaves 34 to come.

The game is very, very unrealistic, though. The play of (C)(H)AT is ridiculous- wasting two blanks on a four-letter word is nonsense. Similarly with QUIRES- it misses both TWS and would set up your opponent with a gimme 57 points for an S.