A ditloid is a type of word puzzle, in which a phrase, quotation, date, or fact must be deduced from the numbers and abbreviated letters in the clue. Common words such as 'the', 'in', 'a', 'an', 'of', 'to', etc. are not normally abbreviated. The name 'ditloid' was given by the Daily Express

Daily Express

The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...

 newspaper, originating from the clue: 1 = DitLoID ≡ 1 Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a novel written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, first published in November 1962 in the Soviet literary magazine Novy Mir . The story is set in a Soviet labor camp in the 1950s, and describes a single day of an ordinary prisoner, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov...

.

Examples of Ditloids

Puzzle	Solution
3 BM	Three Blind Mice Three Blind Mice Three Blind Mice is an English nursery rhyme and musical round. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3753.-Lyrics:The modern words are:-Variations and uses:Amateur music composer Thomas Oliphant noted in 1843 that:...
7 DS	Seven deadly sins Seven deadly sins The 7 Deadly Sins, also known as the Capital Vices or Cardinal Sins, is a classification of objectionable vices that have been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct followers concerning fallen humanity's tendency to sin...
20 V on a D	20 Vertices on a Dodecahedron
24 H in a D	24 Hour Hour The hour is a unit of measurement of time. In modern usage, an hour comprises 60 minutes, or 3,600 seconds... s in a Day Day A day is a unit of time, commonly defined as an interval equal to 24 hours. It also can mean that portion of the full day during which a location is illuminated by the light of the sun...
52 C in a P	52 Cards Playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games...  in a Pack
20000 LU the S	Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax...
1966 E W the W C	1966 England Wins the World Cup
8 P in the SS	8 Planets in the Solar System

History

Will Shortz

Will Shortz

Will Shortz is an American puzzle creator and editor, and currently the crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times.-Early life and education:...

 originated the current form of this puzzle and first published it in the May–June 1981 issue of Games Magazine

GAMES Magazine

Games magazine is a United States magazine devoted to games and puzzles, and is published by Games Publications, a division of Kappa Publishing Group.-History:...

, calling it the Equation Analysis Test. This puzzle is now posted on the Games website. In its annual 1981 issue of "What's hot and what's not," Us Magazine named the Equation Analysis Test in the "what's hot" category – the only nonperson so recognized. Shortz reports:

Some anonymous person had retyped the puzzle from Games (word for word, except for my byline),
photocopied it, and passed it along. This page was then rephotocopied ad infinitum, like a chain letter,
and circulated around the country. Games readers who hadn't seen the original even started sending
it back to Games as something the magazine ought to consider publishing!

Shortz based the puzzle on the Formula Analysis Test - Revised Form published in Morgan Worthy's 1975 book AHA! A Puzzle Approach to Creative Thinking (Chicago: Nelson Hall). Worthy's equations were in a different format, for example:

Puzzle	Solution
M. +M. +N.H. +V. +C. +R.I = N.E.	Maine Maine Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...  + Massachusetts Massachusetts The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...  + New Hampshire New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...  + Vermont Vermont Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...  + Connecticut Connecticut Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...  + Rhode Island Rhode Island The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...  = New England New England New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
"1B. in the H. = 2 in the B."	"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" (a proverb Proverb A proverb is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim... )
N. +V. +P. +A. +A. +C. +P. +I. = P. of S.	noun Noun In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...  + verb Verb A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...  + pronoun Pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...  + adjective Adjective In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....  + adverb Adverb An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....  + conjunction Grammatical conjunction In grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects two words, sentences, phrases or clauses together. A discourse connective is a conjunction joining sentences. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" must be defined for each...  + preposition  + interjection Interjection In grammar, an interjection or exclamation is a word used to express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker . Filled pauses such as uh, er, um are also considered interjections...  = Parts of Speech

Worthy gives the source of his inspiration and speculates about the perennial popularity
of this puzzle:

I got the idea for linguistic equations from graffiti someone had
written in the form of an obscene formula on a restroom wall at the
University of Florida. When the answer suddenly came to me, I realized
the format was a good one for eliciting the "aha effect". After that I
used such items as exercise material when teaching workshops on
creative thinking.

My guess is that one reason a person enjoys linguistic equations is
that the answer hits him or her all at once rather than being solved in
an incremental fashion. It is similar to what happens when we suddenly
see an embedded figure pop into focus; the satisfaction is visceral
rather than just intellectual. My experience was that people often had
the answer to an item come to them when they were not consciously
thinking about the puzzles, but relaxed, such as in the shower or about
to fall asleep.

Another factor is that with well-written items, success does not hinge
on obscure information. Ideally, a person should never have to feel, "I
could never have gotten that one no matter how long I worked on it."
There is something ego enhancing about knowing you have the answer
inside and just need to find it.

External links

• Ditloids from Symigreece.com
• Ditloid Problems from PhpWiki
• The Ditloids Quiz from Gaming World Directory
• Ditloids from Intelligence Test
• Ditloid Flash Game