Now alu-gobi gets you points in Scrabble!

Terms from Indian cookery, including keema, alu and gobi, alongside the slang ‘blingy’ - meaning shiny, are among almost 3,000 new words added to the official list that can be used in the popular board game Scrabble.

The latest edition of Collins Official Scrabble Words is out.

Terms from Indian cookery, including keema, alu and gobi, alongside the slang ‘blingy’ - meaning shiny, are among almost 3,000 new words added to the official list that can be used in the popular board game Scrabble, reports the Scotsman.

Also included in the list, compiled by staff in Glasgow, are street slang terms, including ‘innit’, ‘thang’ and ‘grrl’, and technology-related words such as ‘webzine’, and ‘darknet’.

The publishers say it is the ‘most comprehensive Scrabble wordlist ever produced’.

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As the Internet encroaches more into everyday life and terminology, many will not be surprised to see words such as ‘Myspace’, ‘fansite’ and ‘Facebook’ added to the list.

Those unlucky enough to have been stuck with a Q at the end of a game will no doubt welcome the arrival of ‘qin’ - a Chinese musical instrument - on the list. This is expected to become one of the most played words in the game, due to the small number of U tiles available.

"The latest edition adds nearly 3,000 new words to the existing quarter of a million available to Scrabble players. These additions are an eclectic mix of new technological jargon, overseas English, recent colloquialisms, street slang, and a few phrases that had not made it on to the list until now,” said Robert Groves, editor of Collins English Dictionaries and editor of the latest word list for Scrabble users.

The last edition of the word list, which has helped solve many a row over the appropriate use of tiles - was published in 2007.