Original
Word Games for your bemusement. Enjoy!
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subscribe, visit http://shadow.ces.uoguelph.ca/mailman/listinfo/vocabaret.
ABC
Words
Solve clues to *A*B*C* words
Air
Command
Show your command of the words ending 'air' clued below..
Alternating
Current
Words are discovered woven into larger words.
A
Quiz of Collectives
Hey, get a bunch of animals in one place and who knows what they're
called. Test your collectives sense.
A
Sprinkling of Snow
Clues refers to a word containing the letters 's-n-o-w' (in that
order, but not necessarily in consecutive order).
A
Stampede of Carniverbs
Man the dictionaries! You won't believe how many animal-verbs
there are. We've found 100! Can you doggedly ferret out the
answers? This is a great activity for English teachers.
AWAD
Quizzes
Are you one of the more than 500,000 subscribers to Anu Garg's A.Word.A.Day
mailing list? Time to put you to the test! These vocabulary
quizzes, each based on a weekly AWAD theme, will test how well you
were paying attention. Non-AWAD players will find the quizzes
challenging vocabulary builders.
Quiz
1 - Beastly Words
Quiz 2 - Which Craft?
Quiz 3 - Ten Words
Quiz 4 - Pass the Spaniard
Quiz 5 - A Study in Scarlet
Quiz 6 - Character Assassination
Quiz 7 - Eponymous Origins I
Quiz 8 - In the Beginning was the AWAD
Quiz 9 - Pre-theme Days
Quiz 10 - Not all that Nautical
Quiz 11 - A Word A Day About Words
Quiz 12 - Vocabulaire en passant
Quiz 13 - Terms of Endearment
Quiz 14 - Savory Words
Quiz 15 - Timber!
Quiz 16 - Verbal Zoo!
Quiz 17 - Strange Plurals
Quiz 18 - Collective Nouns
Quiz 19 - Unusual Body Parts
Quiz
20 - Animal Words
Beasts
at Bay
Thar's beasts embedded in the clued solutions. And much verse!
Channels
Syzygies (see below) for those who preferred "fill in
the blank tests" in high school English classes.
Character
Reference Crossword
A crossword puzzle with character! It features as clues some of
the best novels of the past 100 years. Your first task is to
determine the last name of the author. A second challenge
has you determining the famous character introduced in each novel.
Checks
in the Mail
Solve clues to words and phrases caching 'checks'
Chop
Chop
Some words can survive having their head and tail letters lopped
off. 'Mideast' becomes 'ideas'... Here are three games based on
loppable words.
Closed
for Lunch
Complete the punning signs that one may find at lunchtime on the
door of a local business. Here are twenty witty submissions, missing
significant (punning) words.
Take a time-out to complete the signs...
Colourful
Quizzes
Complete the colourful clued expressions:
Blue
by You
Green Space
Whitewash
Are you Red-dy
The Black Whole
Components
Lyn Andrews researches, compiles, prints and mails a quiz magazine
to a loyal membership throughout Australia. The magazine is called
"Frustration" and it is a bi-monthly publication which
contains word association and general knowledge quizzes (the profits
of which go to Cancer research). Lyn regularly submits word association
puzzles to the Vocabaret. We have dubbed the games 'Components'.
Crosswords
Kenneth
Oppel's Airborn trilogy is heady adventure. We've created
Crosswords for each of the books
Airborn
Crossword (PDF) | Airborn
Crossword Solution (PDF)
Skybreaker Crossword
(Word doc)
Starclimber Crossword
(PDF)
Harry
Potter & The Goblet of Fire: Fourth Task WEB
/ JAVA
Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix PDF
(hosted by Raincoast Books)
There
are more book-related crosswords on our Bookhooks
game page
Are
you Web Savvy? Webwords Computerese Crossword PDF
Computing History WEB
/ JAVA
Electricity WEB /
JAVA
Rocks and Minerals WEB
/ JAVA
30 Years of History WEB
/ JAVA
U.S. Presidential Parade WEB
/ JAVA
Timeless Children's Authors WEB
/ JAVA
Glacial Ice WEB
/ JAVA
Wolves WEB
/ JAVA
Harry Potter WEB
/ JAVA
Math Marvel WEB
/ JAVA
Stellar Space WEB
/ JAVA
Dinosaur WEB
/ JAVA
Science WEB
/ JAVA
Mixed Up Christmas WEB
/ JAVA
United States Fill-In WEB
/ JAVA
Double
Play
Make sense of a string of letters by cutting it in half and adding
a common letter at the start of each piece. Take "eachall"
an example, add a 'b' before the 'e', divide the expression between
the 'h' and 'a' and add the 'b' again. The result is BEACH BALL.
Turn some Double Plays today!
Doublets
A perennial favourite word game! Can you make LOVE into HATE
in 5 steps, changing only one letter at a time -- such that a new
real word is created at each step? Using Lewis Carroll's innovation
which permits anagrams at any stage, the Doublets puzzles
generate lots of email responses. See also the new challenging derivation,
Word Origami!
Douze
Well, you solve six clues to 2-letter words and then shake 'em all
about and then solve four clues to 3-letter words and you shake
'em all about and then you solve three clues to 4-letter words.
These ingenious wee challenges are well worth the time it takes
to devise them!
Eponyms
Eponyms
are words derived from the name of a person, real or imaginary.
Alexandria is named for Alexander the Great. The teddy bear derives
from American president Theodore Roosevelt. Identify the eponymous
words from their sources.
Estranged
Relatives
Five phrases are related. They have been shaken (not stirred). Straighten
them out and determine their bond.
First
Things First
Solve for the following words and then determine how the solution
words are related.
Forays
Each answer here contains four A's.
Four
Eyes
Each answer here is a word or name that contains four I's.
Funny
Films Fiasco
Set right these mixed up comedy movie titles
The
Good, the Bad and the Ugly Issue 1 and Issue
2
Three clues refer to 1. a synonym, 2. an antonym and 3. an anagram
of the answer word (in no particular order). Unscramble the clues
to detemine the answer word.
The
Great Divide 1 | 2
Solve clues to six-letter words on either side of the great
divide. Recombine the component trigrams to solve the seven clues
on the other side of the divide.
Hard
Words
Solve clues to *HARD* words
Hide
and Seek
Solve clues to words. The letters H-I-D-E are embedded in the solutions.
Hoad-in-the-Toll
I see words hidden in sentences! I see clues in the sentences...
Hold
On!
Solve clues to phrases that feature the word 'hold'
Idiom
Analysis Test
In the infectious tradition of the Equation Anaysis Tests,
here's one featuring common English idiomatic phrases.
JuxtaPosition
The Editor's Choice! Four clues to four words
within words.
KeyWord
Five words share a common key word in each of their definitions.
Got a hunch? You are encouraged to make trips to your favourite
dictionary to verify your answer.
KeyWord
Scramble
Keyword with a twist - each of the five clue words has been scrambled.
Letterbox
Arrange letters into a 3 X 3 grid to create words in each horizontal
and vertical channel.
Lewis
Puzzles
Named after the puzzle's creator, Lewis Carroll, this anagram game
challenges you to create exactly two words using three vowels and
seven consonants chosen randomly from five alphabets. Often
a clue is provided to a possible two word combination. Also
comes in more complex 4-20 and 6-30 varieties.
Line
'em Up
Slide words into three different horizontal configurations so that
the highlighted columns show members of that group's category.
Nothing
to It
Each of the clued answers has the letters NIL (intact) embedded
therein.
Off-by-One
The game of near misses. Solve clues to words that differ by one
letter from a root word.
Oooo!
Each answer here is a word or name that contains four O's.
Play
Ground
Solve clues to phrases that feature the word 'ground'
Port
Authority
Not
just any port* word in a storm! The following clues will help you
to navigate to the right port* word.
Proverbial
Nightmare
Squashed sayings seek some support...
Quadricycle
This compact word game features clues and a common cycling quadrigram.
TOUGHIE!
Quinze
Any way you slice it, this is a fun and challenging wordgame.
Find the clues to the five 3-letter words, rearrange them to find
the clues to three 5-letter words. Variations include Vingt
and Vingt-Quatre.
Ration,
AL!
Provide answers to three clues such that you use the fewest letters
of the alphabet in your combined responses. Can you name a car make
or model, an actress, and a one-word book title using only 5 letters?
Three of the participants in Rational, AL #001 did!
Rebound
A testament to the symmetry of language. Who'd have thought
that the first four letters of VERBOSITY reversed would make the
first four letters of BREVITY? Each issue features the clues to
two words. Reverse the first x letters of the first answer
word and you have the first x letters of the second answer
word.
Reverse
Verses
They spell something left to right and something else right to left,
and they're gameworthy! Answer the couplets to determine the two
clues words. This puzzle was inspired by William Espy.
Rhyme
and Reason
This "in two rhyming words" game was the first of the
Vocabaret games. It was featured on Anu Garg's wordserver and on
Crossword America's AOL forum. The RNR Archives contain well
over 1,500 Rhyme-and-Reason puzzles.
Rhyme-n-Reason
Internal Rhymes Special
The answers to these RNRs feature internal rhymes, as in 'Mordor'.
First published in a series through April 1996, this RnR Special
reappeared in an August 1997 posting to Wordly-Wise (the precursor
to The Vocabaret).
Rotagrams
Take a word and roll it around and you have a rotagram. For
example, take the word 'grin' and roll it forward starting at the
'r' and you get 'ring'. The clues below will produce a rotagram
pairing solution.
Rotor
Solve clues to palindromic words.
Sam
I Am
Solve clues to words containing the intact
trigram 'SAM'.
Sanctum
'Sanctum' is an anagram of MUSTCAN. In this game, you must
use specified letters and can use some others. Create the
longest words possible.
Sculpt-Word
Insert or delete letters from the head or tail of words to go from
source to target words.
Shakedown
Reshuffle the anagrammed words and figure out what they have in
common!
SynoGolf
This puzzle idea comes from a book by puzzlesmith Everett
M. Smith published in 1931 called Synonym Golf. The
objective of each hole is to provide the SHORTEST synonym for the
offered word. Par ratings are provided. Scoring is based on word
length. This is a great game for the classroom!
Something
I Threw Together
Solve clues to phrases that feature the word 'throw'
Spooner
or Later
If butterflies can flutter by, then Adrian Road-Headache can challenge
you with this fun word puzzle.
The
Spectral Quiz
Know your colours? A mammoth and colourful quiz, with 152 clues
to colours-that-are-also-things!
Sports
Movies Changeup
Be a sport and coach these sporting movie titles back into shape!
Syzygies
Another innovative Lewis Carroll word game. Doublets on steroids.
Behead and curtail words to create new words. Lewis loved
them and you will, too.
The
Letter Bank
Withdraw as many of the letters in Letter Bank Word (LBW) as required
to solve the clues. The answers start small, and the words
(and interest) accrue quickly! This word transforming
technique is at the heart of the success of Word Origami (see below).
Timed
Bigram Challenges
You have 5 minutes to find 26 words featuring the bigrams
IA - IZ. Go!
You have 3 minutes to find 26 words featuring the bigrams
LA - LZ. Go!
You have 5 minutes to find 26 words featuring the bigrams
RA - RZ. Go!
You have 10 minutes to find 26 words featuring bigrams
HA-HZ. Go!
To-By-To
Complete the following clued "____ to _____" phrases
Tricycle
This compact word game features clues and a common cycling trigram.
Trigram
Many of our former subscribers have told me about licence plate
games that they played as children (and adults!) and that's exactly
where I got the idea for this game. What's the smallest word
you can make with the trigram SYE? Trigram is one of the more
popular of the games, with its unique golf paradigm and fierce and
wordly competitions.
Trigram
Twist
A derivation of Trigram, in which the letters of the Trigram are
twisted into all possible permutations. Kind of like playing
the Trigram Valley course with a speed cart.
Tune
In
Sort out the titles of these (vowelless)classic songs. As a hint,
we've listed some of the lyrics from the ten songs, displayed below
in no particular order...
Uncommon
Answer a variety of word clues. Be correct, but also be wittily
uncommon. Your score depends on how many other
entrants gave your answer to the clue. This game, introduced in
February 2000, is played in weekly instalments and is one of the
most popular weekly competitions!
Undulation
A cool variation on Alternating Current,
this game has clued words interspliced forwards and backwards in
source words.
Unlit
Unscramble words to insert into the opening of a famous novel. As
a final challenge, identify the literary work and its author.
Verb
Names Quiz
Match clues to famous First Names to the definitions of their verb
forms. West Winger Lowe steals... and author Conroy strokes a cat!
Weird
Words Quiz
Match each unusual word with its definition! (or perhaps save some
of the arcane definitions for your next game of Balderdash!)
What's
in the OVEN?
Match clues to words containing the word 'oven'
WordFans
cur - curb - curfew - insecure... Answer clues to words which fan
out from a common root letter combination.
WordPaths
Unearth the word from its etymological fossil.
Word
Origami
Turn the FUTURE into the PAST. A challenging derivation on the Doublets
game. Word Origami permits letterbanking, as well as letter
swapping and anagramming. Beat par. Lewis Carroll would
have loved this one, as the source and target words need not be
of equal length. Here's a helpful strategy
guide for this game.
You
are what you eat!
The Vocabaret audiences were asked to submit in question and answer
form a riddle thematically linking a person and some agreeable element
in their diet. Example: What would an equivocator eat for breakfast?
A: a waffle! Can you determine the twenty dietary peculiarities?
Try
the Rhyme &
Reason @ Random Server! Play your favourite rhyming word game
as long as you want. 1500+ original clues and rhyming word answers.
Play
a random issue of the keyword game. Then another, and another...
from the 700 or so in the archives on the KeyWord
Server
