Is it possible to determine the maximum point value that can be awarded for a single Scrabble word? The number of variations for a single scrabble game is a very very large, but finite number. Additionally, the number of possible words is a much smaller finite value. Is it possible to determine the maximum (upper limit?) point value that can be awarded for a single Scrabble word?
/I'm not a mathematician, so I'm sorry in advance if this isn't the appropriate stackexchange site for this question (but if it's not, which is??)
Thanks.  
 A: Having done some digging, it seems that (a) this is not a maths question, and (b) there is no proof that the proposed "best word" is, in fact, the best. Essentially, someone found a good word in the 1970s and noone has been able to better it.
It seems that the current "best word" is benzoxycamphors, which is the name of a chemical. For example, this article gives an example in which it scores 1593. However, this article claims that benzoxycamphors is not sanctioned by the National Scrabble Association, and they favour the word oxyphenbutazone (1587).
The most interesting article I came across in my procrastination was this one, which tells the tragic tale of the word benzhydroxyquin (2278).
(If you are interested, you should look up the back-issues of Word Ways Magazine. Perhaps am e-mail to their editor would clear up the current state of affairs.)
A: I suppose there is a definitive list of legal Scrabble words. The informal rule says that the word has to be in whatever dictionary you have lying around the house, but I expect that serious play involves a more formal rule, with an official dictionary. Once you have this list (in electronic form) it's a fairly simple programming task to place each of these words in one of a dozen or so "good" places on the board, and see what scores they generate. The good places are the ones that touch "triple word score" squares, presumably. There are perhaps a few hundred million possibilities, but this should be well within the capacity of any decent modern computer. Password hackers do this dictionary-cycling sort of thing all the time.
All of this is just for a single word, considered in isolation. If you also want to consider additional scoring derived from words already played, then it's much more difficult problem, as explained in Jared's comment below.
