Word Puzzles & Games for Word Nerds

This picture isn't of me, but it totally reminds me of myself as a child and young person.

Right from the start, I was into rhymes, books, words, word puzzles and games to do with words. I'd sit for hours figuring out crosswords, word searches, cryptograms and logic puzzles and I'd read until I couldn't see straight. I was also a spelling geek. Even gave the spelling tests to the class in elementary school sometimes (hopefully there aren't any typos in this lens that might be misconstrued as spelling mistakes!!).

I still love word and logic games (including number puzzles like Sudoku) . . . and what follows is a bit of fun information on my particular favorites.

Photo Credit: William R. Wilson on Wikimedia Commons.

A crossword is a type of word puzzle. As you can see on the left, it is made up of black and white squares that form a grid. The grid is usually in the shape of a square or a rectangle. The white squares are to be filled up with letters (in the form of words or phrases). The black squares simply separate the words or phrases. Clues are provided. The answers to the clues provide the words or phrases that fill up the white squares. Squares in which answers begin are usually numbered. Clues are identified by these numbers as well as a direction (e.g. 8-Across or 20-Down) (adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossword).

Word searches are also called word finds or word seek puzzles. Just like with crossword puzzles, letters are placed in a square or rectangular grid, but in this case, words are hidden horizontally, vertically or diagonally within the mass of letters. A word list is usually provided (sometimes only a theme is provided) and the solver has to find each word in the grid. Words might be placed forwards or backwards.

Have you solved cryptograms before? Basically, it's like a code. The letters underneath the empty boxes are substitutions for the actual letters of the sentence or phrase that you need to discover.

So, if you haven't done cryptograms before, how do you think you'd begin?

Well, start by looking for clues like one-letter words (usually can only be "a" or "I"), double letters, apostrophes, hyphens and other punctuation that might help.

If, for example, the single-letter word in the cryptogram above (marked with an "F") is "a," then all spaces marked with an "F" will be an "a." So, fill the letter "a" into all the spaces marked with an "F" and see if it provides more clues as to what other words might be.

An additional clue is the fact that the substituted letter can't stand for the same letter in the actual phrase.

I know . . . that sounds confusing . . . but give it a shot and let me know your answer in the comment box at the bottom of this lens.

Cryptogram image from puzzler157 on Wikimedia Commons.

Logic puzzles are my absolute favorite. I could do these all day.

Just go through the clues, starting with the obvious things. For example, in the puzzle above, you know that Steven's shirt isn't red (from clue #2). So find Steven's name, go across until you reach the column that is marked "red" and place an "x" in that empty square. Keep working with the clues and indicating the facts with an "x" or a check mark.

This puzzle can be found at www.squiglysplayhouse.com. Have fun! And let me know your answer in the comments section at the bottom.

"Wordle is a toy for generating "word clouds" from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends."

What kinds of memories does Scrabble conjure up for you?

I think about asking my family members to play Scrabble . . . or any game, really . . . and them sort of rolling their eyes with an "oh, not another game" look on their faces! And I also think of warm, cozy times playing the game . . . as well as a sense of competitiveness as I tried to create the highest-ranking, longest, most difficult words.

Photo Credit: Ella's Dad on Flickr.

Did you play Boggle? Boggle is about creating as many words as you can, within a specified amount of time and with certain letters, usually in a 4x4 grid. Instructions can be found at this site.

Today, you can play the board game version, or you can play similar games online such as Book Worm and Text Twist.

Photo Credit: Stilfehler on Wikimedia Commons.

As I mentioned above, when I was in elementary school, I actually gave the spelling tests to the rest of the class on occasion. I don't know what it was about spelling, really. I just loved it and was great at it. My love for reading probably helped. Of course, my word nerd nature didn't hurt! But . . . over the years I developed a bit of a pet peeve regarding spelling. Now that I'm older and wiser, I know there are much more important things to be concerned about :). But I've been very bothered by improper spelling over the years!!

You know, though . . . the English language isn't the most conducive to great spelling! Have you ever thought about the weirdness that exists in our language? This poem gives it some thought. . . . like why does "gh" make an "f" sound (as in "enough") . . . how come you can fill in and fill out a form but you're doing the same thing . . . why isn't the plural of house, hice . . . or the plural of mouse, mouses . . . and on and on and on. What "weirdnesses" can you think of?

Photo Credit: dayzof1der on Photobucket.