A type of play in
Scrabble and other
crossword games in which you play a word
parallel and
adjacent to an existing word, rather than
crossing it, or as a
hook.
Each letter adjacent to a letter in the other word must form a short word perpendicular to those words.
This is often a powerful strategy because you score each letter in the parallel part of your word twice, as well as any other letters in your word and other letters in the perpendicular words once, and you can form a lot of words.
Here's an example:
CAMERA
TALES -> TALES
CAMERA, AT, MA, EL, RE, and AS are all formed in this play.
It's difficult to play good, long parallel plays because so many words have to be formed.
This is also part of the reason two-letter words are so important in Scrabble.