Word game
Encyclopedia
Word games and puzzle
s are spoken or board games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties.
Word games are generally engaged as a source of entertainment
, but have been found to serve an education
al purpose as well. For instance, young children can find enjoyment playing modestly competitive
games such as Hangman
, while naturally developing important language skills like spelling. Solving crossword
puzzles, which requires familiarity with a larger vocabulary
, is a pastime that mature adults have long credited with keeping their minds sharp.
There are popular televised
word games with valuable monetary prize
s for the winning contestant
s. Many word games enjoy international
popularity across a multitude of language
s, whilst some are unique to English
-speakers.
The goal is to form words out of given letters.
of words.
Puzzle
A puzzle is a problem or enigma that tests the ingenuity of the solver. In a basic puzzle, one is intended to put together pieces in a logical way in order to come up with the desired solution...
s are spoken or board games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties.
Word games are generally engaged as a source of entertainment
Entertainment
Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...
, but have been found to serve an education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
al purpose as well. For instance, young children can find enjoyment playing modestly competitive
Competition
Competition is a contest between individuals, groups, animals, etc. for territory, a niche, or a location of resources. It arises whenever two and only two strive for a goal which cannot be shared. Competition occurs naturally between living organisms which co-exist in the same environment. For...
games such as Hangman
Hangman (game)
Hangman is a paper and pencil guessing game for two or more players. One player thinks of a word and the other tries to guess it by suggesting letters.-Overview:...
, while naturally developing important language skills like spelling. Solving crossword
Crossword
A crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of white and shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages that are written left-to-right, the answer...
puzzles, which requires familiarity with a larger vocabulary
Vocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...
, is a pastime that mature adults have long credited with keeping their minds sharp.
There are popular televised
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
word games with valuable monetary prize
Prize
A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people to recognise and reward actions or achievements. Official prizes often involve monetary rewards as well as the fame that comes with them...
s for the winning contestant
Contestant
A contestant is someone who takes part in a competition, usually a professional competition or a game show on television. The participants competing against each other have to go through rounds...
s. Many word games enjoy international
International
----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...
popularity across a multitude of language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
s, whilst some are unique to English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
-speakers.
Language-predicated educational games
A word game or word puzzle can be of several different types:Letter arrangement games
- 5 To Closea team card game
- AcrophobiaAcrophobia (game)Acrophobia is an online multiplayer word game. The game was originally conceived by Anthony Shubert and programmed by Kenrick Mock and Michelle Hoyle in 1995...
- Alpha BlitzAlpha BlitzAlpha Blitz is a word game designed by Mike Selinker and published by Wizards of the Coast. Alpha Blitz is based on the concept of a letter bank, as players make words using the letter cards on the table as many times as they like...
- AlternadeAlternadeAn alternade is a word in which its letters, taken alternatively in a strict sequence, and used in the same order as the original word, make up at least two other words. All letters must be used, but the smaller words are not necessarily of the same length...
- AnagrabAnagrabAnagrab is a word game which is usually played with Scrabble tiles. The name is an amalgam of the words 'anagram' and 'grab' - because a player's words may at any time be 'grabbed' by opponents...
- AnagramsAnagramsAnagrams, Pirate Scrabble, Anagram, Snatch, or Grabscrab is a board-free word game that involves rearranging letter tiles to form words....
both a simple game of rearranging letters and a linguistic recreation of making anagrams that seem to illuminate something about the original word, such as "Old west action" for "Clint EastwoodClint EastwoodClinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
". - BananagramsBananagramsBananagrams is a word game invented by Abraham Nathanson of Narragansett, Rhode Island, wherein lettered tiles are used to spell words.Nathanson conceived and developed the idea for the game with the help of his family...
- BoggleBoggleBoggle is a word game designed by Allan Turoff and trademarked by Parker Brothers, a division of Hasbro. The game is played using a plastic grid of lettered dice, in which players attempt to find words in sequences of adjacent letters.-Rules:...
- ChicktionaryChicktionaryChicktionary is a word game available on the Microsoft Internet search page. Chicktionary was developed by Blockdot, a Dallas, Texas based developer of games and branded entertainment applications...
Game from Blockdot - Euler's Day OffEuler's Day Off (game)-Objective of the game:The object of the game is to arrange twenty five randomly selected letters in a five-by-five grid to form as many vertical and horizontal words as possible.-Scoring:...
- GhostGhost (game)Ghost is a spoken word game in which players take turns adding letters to a growing word fragment, trying not to be the one to complete a valid word. Each fragment must be the beginning of an actual word, and usually some minimum is set on the length of a word that counts, such as three or four...
- JumbleJumbleJumble is a word puzzle with a clue, a drawing illustrating the clue, and a set of words, each of which is “jumbled” by permuting its letters to make an anagram. A solver reconstructs the words, then arranges letters at marked positions in the words to spell the answer to the clue...
game of word forming with letter permutations. - LiteratiLiteratiLiterati may refer to:*Intellectuals or those who read and comment on literature*The scholar-bureaucrats or literati of imperial China**Literati painting, also known as the Southern School of painting, developed by Chinese literati...
, a variant of Scrabble developed by Yahoo! GamesYahoo! GamesYahoo! Games is the section of the Yahoo! website in which Yahoo! users can play games either with other users or by themselves. The games on the website are typically Java applets or quick Flash games, but there are others which require a download. Many of the games that require a download... - Letterlicious, a constant battle to create more space to accommodate new words
- Pass the BombPass the BombPass the Bomb is an award-winning word game invented by Los Rodrigues, licenced by Weekend Games and published by Piatnik. It consists of a timer in the shape of a black grenade with a string fuse. Pressing a button starts a loud ticking and, after a random time interval, the sound of an explosion...
make a word including the given letters before the bomb explodes - Pick Two rearranging word tile crossword game
- QuiddlerQuiddlerQuiddler is a proprietary card game created by Set Enterprises. Players compete by spelling English words from cards in hands of increasing size, each card worth various points. The game may be considered a mixture of Scrabble and gin rummy. The word "Quiddler" is a trademark.- Play and scoring...
a game of forming words using a deck of cards with letters printed on them - ScrabbleScrabbleScrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
- ScribbageScribbageScribbage is a classic dice word game published in 1959 by the E. S. Lowe Company. 13 dice are rolled which have various letters on each side. Each letter is given a point value depending on its frequency in the English language. A timer is flipped and the player has to put the dice into words...
- ScriptoriumScriptoriumScriptorium, literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the copying of manuscripts by monastic scribes...
the game which gives meaning to words - Take a LetterTake a LetterTake a Letter is a game show that originally aired on ITV from 10 January 1962 to 24 June 1964 and was originally hosted by Bob Holness . It was revived in 1997 and aired on Living with Jenny Hull as the host....
- UpwordsUpwordsUpwords, recently renamed "Scrabble Upwords" by Hasbro, is a board game invented by Elliot Rudell and originally published by the Milton Bradley Company . The game is similar to Scrabble, except that letters can be stacked on top of other words to create new words. The higher the stack of letters,...
Scrabble-like, with the ability to place letters on top of existing letters to a maximum of five tiers. - Word Thief word stealing card game
Paper and pencil games/puzzles
- Arrowords
- Acrostics
- CrosswordCrosswordA crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of white and shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages that are written left-to-right, the answer...
puzzles - Cryptic crosswordCryptic crosswordCryptic crosswords are crossword puzzles in which each clue is a word puzzle in and of itself. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, Ireland, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth nations, including Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malta,...
- CryptogramCryptogramA cryptogram is a type of puzzle which consists of a short piece of encrypted text. Generally the cipher used to encrypt the text is simple enough that cryptogram can be solved by hand. Frequently used are substitution ciphers where each letter is replaced by a different letter or number. To solve...
s - HangmanHangman (game)Hangman is a paper and pencil guessing game for two or more players. One player thinks of a word and the other tries to guess it by suggesting letters.-Overview:...
- JottoJottoJotto is a logic-oriented word game played with two players, a writing implement, and a piece of paper. Each player picks a secret word of five letters , and the object of the game is to correctly guess the other player's word first...
(or Giotto) - Lord Word WormLord Word WormLord Word Worm is a word game concept created and owned by Australian company Inventerprising. The game is currently available as paper puzzles and as a Facebook application. Both forms share similar concepts, but vary in individual rules...
- RebusRebusA rebus is an allusional device that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words. It was a favourite form of heraldic expression used in the Middle Ages to denote surnames, for example in its basic form 3 salmon fish to denote the name "Salmon"...
- Word polygonWord polygonA word polygon is a word puzzle where the solver is presented with a grid or shape with 5 to 9 letters. The aim of the player creating as many words as possible using each letter no more than once. Often, one of the letters is a mandatory inclusion...
A puzzle often include in newspapers combining an anagram with a type of wordsearch. - Word searchWord searchA word search, word find, word seek, word sleuth or mystery word puzzle is a word game that is letters of a word in a grid, that usually has a rectangular or square shape. The objective of this puzzle is to find and mark all the words hidden inside the box. The words may be horizontally,...
Structured games
Games focusing on the semanticsSemantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
of words.
- CharadesCharadesCharades or charade is a word guessing game. In the form most played today, it is an acting game in which one player acts out a word or phrase, often by pantomiming similar-sounding words, and the other players guess the word or phrase. The idea is to use physical rather than verbal language to...
- FictionaryFictionaryFictionary, also known as the Dictionary Game or simply Dictionary, is a word game in which players guess the definition of an obscure word....
- LINQ
- Mad LibsMad LibsMad Libs is a phrasal template word game where one player prompts another for a list of words to substitute for blanks in a story, usually with funny results...
- ScattergoriesScattergoriesScattergories is a creative-thinking category-based party game produced by Hasbro through the Milton Bradley Company and published in 1988...
- TabooTaboo (game)Taboo is a word guessing party game published by Hasbro in 1989. The object of the game is for a player to have his/her partner guess the word on his/her card without using the word itself or five additional words listed on the card....
Linguistic recreations
These are games based on words and letters.- AnagramAnagramAn anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
as discussed above - Celebrity Name Game ChallengeCelebrity Name Game ChallengeCelebrity Name Game is a word game popularly used during long car rides or periods of inactivity. It can be played with anywhere from two people to a large group....
- Constrained writingConstrained writingConstrained writing is a literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern.Constraints are very common in poetry, which often requires the writer to use a particular verse form....
- Contact
- DitloidDitloidA 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...
s - GryGryThe Gry Puzzle is a popular puzzle that asks for the third English word, other than "angry" and "hungry," that ends with the letters "-gry." Aside from words derived from "angry" and "hungry," there is no stand-alone word ending in "-gry" that is in current usage.This puzzle has no good answer, yet...
- Homophone Word GameHomophone Word GameHomophone word games are games that use pairs or sets of homophones to create humorous and clever plays-on-words. They often involve the creation of a puzzle to which the answer is a pair of homophones.-Homophones :...
- Kangaroo wordKangaroo wordA kangaroo word is a word that contains letters of another word, in order, with the same meaning. For example: the word masculine contains the word male, which is a synonym of the first word; similarly, the word observe contains its synonym see....
s - Letter bankLetter bankA letter bank is a type of anagram where all the letters of one word can be used as many times as desired to make a new word or phrase...
s - LipogramLipogramA lipogram is a kind of constrained writing or word game consisting of writing paragraphs or longer works in which a particular letter or group of letters is avoided — usually a common vowel, and frequently "E", the most common letter in the English language.Writing a lipogram is a trivial task...
s - PalindromePalindromeA palindrome is a word, phrase, number, or other sequence of units that can be read the same way in either direction, with general allowances for adjustments to punctuation and word dividers....
s - PangramPangramA pangram , or holoalphabetic sentence, is a sentence using every letter of the alphabet at least once. Pangrams have been used to display typefaces, test equipment, and develop skills in handwriting, calligraphy, and keyboarding...
s - Quadrivial QuandaryQuadrivial QuandaryQuadrivial Quandary is a word game and a form of constrained writing. The challenge is to write a single sentence that contains all four words from a daily selection. Success is determined by how well the composition illustrates the meaning and idiomatic usage of each mandated word, while obeying...
- RebusRebusA rebus is an allusional device that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words. It was a favourite form of heraldic expression used in the Middle Ages to denote surnames, for example in its basic form 3 salmon fish to denote the name "Salmon"...
- ShiritoriShiritoriShiritori is a Japanese word game in which the players are required to say a word which begins with the final kana of the previous word. No distinction is made between hiragana, katakana and kanji...
- Spelling beeSpelling beeA spelling bee is a competition where contestants, usually children, are asked to spell English words. The concept is thought to have originated in the United States....
- SpoonerismSpoonerismA spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched . It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner , Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency...
s - The Da Vinci GameThe Da Vinci GameThe Da Vinci Game is a board game inspired by Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code. Players solve puzzles, riddles, logic problems, and conundrums in a race against the clock, and the other players. It can be played with three to six players or teams. The game was created by Martin Woods and Allison...
- The Green Glass DoorThe Green Glass DoorThe Green Glass Door or Deep But Not Profound is a common word game where a player already introduced to the game gives clues to a new player about what does or does not belong behind the "green glass door"...
- The Man Who Melted Jack DannThe Man Who Melted Jack DannThe Man Who Melted Jack Dann is the name of a word game inspired by Jack Dann's book The Man Who Melted . The aim of the game is to place the writer's name in front or behind the title of one of the writer's book and see if you get a funny sentence...
- Word golf
Televised Games
- Spelling beeSpelling beeA spelling bee is a competition where contestants, usually children, are asked to spell English words. The concept is thought to have originated in the United States....
- Wheel of Fortune
- Lingo
- Des chiffres et des lettresDes chiffres et des lettresDes chiffres et des lettres is a French television programme. It was created by Armand Jammot and tests the numeracy skills and vocabulary of two contestants...
- CountdownCountdown (game show)Countdown is a British game show involving word and number puzzles. It is produced by ITV Studios and broadcast on Channel 4. It is presented by Jeff Stelling, assisted by Rachel Riley, with regular lexicographer Susie Dent. It was the first programme to be aired on Channel 4, and over sixty-five...
Miscellaneous
- AmbigramAmbigramAn ambigram is a typographical design or art form that may be read as one or more words not only in its form as presented, but also from another viewpoint, direction, or orientation. The words readable in the other viewpoint, direction or orientation may be the same or different from the original...
s - Fortunately, UnfortunatelyFortunately, UnfortunatelyFortunately, Unfortunately is a word game first played at conventions of the National Puzzlers' League in the late 1980s. It was invented and introduced by one-time NPL president David Scott Marley. A version of the game, called "Good News, Bad News" was popularized by the BBC radio show I'm Sorry...
- RebusRebusA rebus is an allusional device that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words. It was a favourite form of heraldic expression used in the Middle Ages to denote surnames, for example in its basic form 3 salmon fish to denote the name "Salmon"...
espicture puzzles representing a word - Verbal arithmeticVerbal arithmeticVerbal arithmetic, also known as alphametics, cryptarithmetic, crypt-arithmetic, cryptarithm or word addition, is a type of mathematical game consisting of a mathematical equation among unknown numbers, whose digits are represented by letters. The goal is to identify the value of each letter...
See also
- Anagram dictionaryAnagram dictionaryIn the main type of anagram dictionary, the letters in words or phrases are rearranged in alphabetical order, and these transpositions are themselves then ordered alphabetically within word-length groups, so that any words consisting of this group of letters can be found. This arrangement is...
- Double entendreDouble entendreA double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
- Forum games
- Fortunately, UnfortunatelyFortunately, UnfortunatelyFortunately, Unfortunately is a word game first played at conventions of the National Puzzlers' League in the late 1980s. It was invented and introduced by one-time NPL president David Scott Marley. A version of the game, called "Good News, Bad News" was popularized by the BBC radio show I'm Sorry...
- Language gameLanguage gameA language game is a system of manipulating spoken words to render them incomprehensible to the untrained ear. Language games are used primarily by groups attempting to conceal their conversations from others...
for a linguisticLinguisticsLinguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
variant. - List of puzzle video games
- Online Word games
- PunPunThe pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
s - PuzzlePuzzleA puzzle is a problem or enigma that tests the ingenuity of the solver. In a basic puzzle, one is intended to put together pieces in a logical way in order to come up with the desired solution...
s - Word playWord playWord play or wordplay is a literary technique in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement...
for literary works in which the nature of the words used themselves become part of the subject of the work. - Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics