Not to mention non-words such as "ead."

At the N.C. School Scrabble Championship, a word is a word is a word - unless it's successfully challenged.

A total of 48 teams, each with two students in grades four through eight, faced off Saturday in the cafeteria at Seawell Elementary School in Chapel Hill. That's a huge turnout in the world of scholastic Scrabble.

North Carolina is a hot spot, said Ben Greenwood, director of the National School Scrabble Championship scheduled to be held in Orlando, Fla., in April. "I think part of that is what happened last year with Erik andAndy."

Greenwood was referring to Erik Salgado and Andy Hoang of Cary, the two students from Salem Elementary School in Apex who won last year's national tourney as fifth-graders, making them the youngest team to win the nationwide event since it began in 2003. They shared a $10,000 prize.

"It was awesome," Erik said Saturday. "I don't know how else to describe it."

Saturday's tournament consisted of five games with each team on a timer with a 25-minute limit.

Although Scrabble is a cerebral game, emotions were rampant, especially when a conglomeration of letters was challenged. That would trigger a trip to one of the laptops scattered around the room to get an official ruling on whether the word was legit or not.

One student was reduced to tears after messing up a challenge. Others jumped exultantly when the ruling went their way.

George King, a seventh-grader at Randolph Middle School in Charlotte, gasped in frustration when e-a-d was ruled not a word. He and his partner, Nicholas Rios, a sixth-grader at the same school, had formed e-a-d as a byproduct when they spelled outt-a-b-l-o-i-d, which would have generated 50 points because it used all seven of their tiles.

Several turns later, however, they managed to successfully place "tabloid" on the board. "That was worth it!" King declared.

Tournament Scrabble helps students build their vocabularies as well as their math skills, given that a host of triple-word squares and double-letter squares have to be taken into account, said David Klionsky, the organizer of the state tournament.

It also fosters teamwork. "We have some kids who are brainiacs but aren't good team players," said Klionsky, an instructional technology specialist at Seawell Elementary.

Winning the state championship isn't a requirement for competing in the national championship, which accepts all comers. Indeed, Erik andAndy didn't come out on top in last year's state competition.

But on Saturday they did finish first, sending a clear message that they're primed to defend their national title.