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Fairly self explanatory question. For those that are interested, the reason I ask is because a coworker just scored 60 points against me with "peaces". Triple letter, and triple word score!

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4  
I want your job! – Ed Guiness Apr 27 '11 at 15:27
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@Ed: Wouldn't you rather do something you enjoyed? :) – Phil Apr 27 '11 at 15:34
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I enjoy scrabble! – Ed Guiness Apr 27 '11 at 15:36
@Ed: LOL! You're not that wrong ahah... – Alenanno Apr 27 '11 at 15:52

3 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

First off, if you're playing Scrabble, then you need to look up your word in the official Scrabble dictionary, not some random site on the internet.

However, for normal English usage "peaces" is not a word. The noun peace is a mass noun and an abstract noun and cannot be pluralized.

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I wasn't looking for scrabble advice particularly; the question seemed terse without the history. Mass noun sounds like an interesting concept though. – Phil Apr 27 '11 at 15:36
+1 for the much better Scrabble dictionary link. – MrHen Apr 27 '11 at 15:36
@Phil Also water is a mass noun. – kiamlaluno Apr 27 '11 at 16:44
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@kiamlaluno: It feels grammatical to have the plural of a mass noun if you are referring to more than one instance of a particular collection of that thing. For example, "the many waters of the world" (though of course this is a bit "irregular"/marked) – Mitch Apr 27 '11 at 18:30
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@Jeff A Separate Peace is one thing, but you'll note that the sequel Two Separate Peaces isn't nearly as well known. – JSBձոգչ Apr 27 '11 at 19:58
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up vote 6 down vote

A direct answer to the game of Scrabble is that "peaces" is a legal word. Wiktionary says:

peace (usually uncountable; plural peaces)

I strongly suggest investing in a proper Scrabble dictionary as they are the ones used in tournaments and most online play. The words that are or are not acceptable for the game can differ from what is found in a strict dictionary.

EDIT: Apparently Wiktionary is really the only dictionary that has "peaces" for the highly irregular plural form. It is best to not use the word unless you are playing Scrabble.

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Yeah I saw that on wiktionary too. It seemed a bit flimsy though. – Phil Apr 27 '11 at 15:33
I agree. But really, the only way to solve this dispute is to agree on a dictionary before the game. – MrHen Apr 27 '11 at 15:36
Haha! Don't use the word unless you're playing scrabble. That's funny. – Phil Apr 27 '11 at 15:38
+1 for "highly irregular" – Mitch Apr 27 '11 at 18:25
Wiktionary is not the only dictionary listing "peaces" as a Scrabble word. The comprehensive "YAWL" (Yet Another Word List) includes "peaces". See: cs.duke.edu/csed/data/yawl-0.3.2 – MετάEd Dec 22 '12 at 6:08
up vote 6 down vote

There are just a handful of uses of plural peaces in COCA:

…more than 20 years of having covered this story and watching so many false peaces, phony starts, so much posturing on all sides, that I must say I come to it with, you know, a certain degree of cynicism…

As somebody who has tried to negotiate many peaces, how do you get out of a situation like that, where both sides are confident it's the other side's fault, and meanwhile, the violence and the strikes just escalate?

(Peaces also occasionally sees use as a pun on pieces, as in 24peaces.org and the headline “The missing peaces”.)

The language described by the OSPD bears only a passing resemblance to English. It includes plenty of words that are ten times as ridiculous as peaces. (I mean, vrow? Seriously? Oh, I see it’s a variant spelling of vrouw. Well OK then.)

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Similarly, the few uses of peaces in the BNC refer to multiple instances of peace. – Charles Apr 27 '11 at 17:36
And what is COCA when it's at home? – Phil Apr 27 '11 at 21:56
Click the link and see for yourself! It’s the Corpus of Contemporary American English, a gigantic searchable collection of English text, stuff Americans have said or written in the past twenty years. See corpus.byu.edu/corpora.asp for more info. – Jason Orendorff Apr 27 '11 at 23:13
I find both of those perfectly acceptable. "Peace" is occasionally used to refer to a peace treaty or imposition of peace, which can of course be pluralized. – Mechanical snail Oct 11 '11 at 1:20

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