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Homophonemes, . Anil
Homophonemes, . Anil
Word Ways
How many different spellings can one phoneme or sound have?
Same Difference?, Jeremiah Farrell
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 46, Number 4
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 46, Number 4
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue including the table of contents.
Magic Poker Hands, Jeremiah Farrell
Aeiou Time Three Delicacies, Darryl Francis
Aeiou Time Three Delicacies, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
While browsing through some back issues of Word Ways, I noticed in the November 2000 Kickshaws that Dave Morice and Eric Chaikin presented a number of "double pair supervocalics", words and terms which use exactly two each of the vowels AEIOU. At the end of the Kickshaws item, they wondered "dare we dream of a decadent feast of AEIOU-times-three-delicacies?", and offered a pair of number name examples: FOUR MILLION SIX HUNDRED AND TEN THOUSAND AND TEN and QUATTUORDECILLION FIVE THOUSAND AND TEN. However, both of these are inconsistent in their use of the word AND.
Opening The Floodgates To A Pandora's Box Of Worms, Don Hauptman
Opening The Floodgates To A Pandora's Box Of Worms, Don Hauptman
Word Ways
in past Word Ways articles, I've differentiated between true mixed metaphors, which combine incongruous, absurd, or unreal images ("it's the whole kettle of fish in a nutshell") and what I call mashed metaphors -where clashing tropes and cliches aren't contradictory or impossible, but nevertheless create an awkward and ludicrous effect because of their proximity ("Investors smelling trouble can vote with their feet").
Making The Alphabet Dance - Part Two, A. Ross Eckler
Making The Alphabet Dance - Part Two, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
The second part in an autobiographical series by A. Ross Eckler detailing his interest in, and the history of Word Ways.
Sound Bites -2, Steve Kahan
Sound Bites -2, Steve Kahan
Word Ways
The tumultuous world we live in has given new meaning (and well-deserved esteem) to the title of 'first responder". Now is your opportunity to join this elite group and assume the mantle in a figurative sense by completing the word rebus that awaits you.
Internal Palindromes And Regular Inflection, T.A. Hall
Internal Palindromes And Regular Inflection, T.A. Hall
Word Ways
An internal palindrome can be observed in a word like DAWNWARD, in which the five letter palindromic sequence AWNWA is embedded within an occurring word.
Simile For The Camera!, Daniel Galef
Simile For The Camera!, Daniel Galef
Word Ways
Similes have a tendency to become entrenched in the language. Though they may originally be an expression of originality, a creative link between two ideas never before formed, they soon are overused and undervalued figures of speech not given a second thought by users, addicted to similes in the way that other users are addicted to methamphetamine. Because a simile has a set meaning belied by its expression, it refers only to one meaning or sense of its base word, like any unambiguous phrase.
Coincidental Synonym Chains, . Anil
Coincidental Synonym Chains, . Anil
Word Ways
Coincidental self(ish) synonymy was defined in 04-45 (& 129) as words spelled the same (& nearly the same) that mean approximately the same but, surprisingly, are unrelated etymologically.
Generic Alternades, Susan Thorpe
Generic Alternades, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
in Language on Vacation, Dmitri Borgmann defined an alternade as a word in which every other letter, beginning with the first letter, make another word; every other letter, beginning with the second letter, also make a word.
Long Words In German And Other Languages, Solomon Golomb
Long Words In German And Other Languages, Solomon Golomb
Word Ways
The German language routinely forms very long words by incorporating (sometimes) long adjectival phrases and the nouns they modify into a single word. And such words find their way into everyday use.
Answers And Solutions
Word Ways
Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.
Cyrillic That Looks Roman, Solomon W. Golomb
Cyrillic That Looks Roman, Solomon W. Golomb
Word Ways
The Cyrillic alphabet used in Russian has several letters that look like Roman letters The ones that correspond closely to the Roman letters in sound as well as appearance are: A,E,K,M,O,T.
Parents And Offspring Reunited, Susan Thorpe
Parents And Offspring Reunited, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
A Parent word is split into two equal, or unequal, parts each of which is a word in its own right. The words are arranged to make a 3-word designation. There are 6 different ways in which 3 words can be arranged.
Us State Nicknames, Slogans & License Plate Legends, Darryl Francis
Us State Nicknames, Slogans & License Plate Legends, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
Over the years, Word Ways has offered transposals of the names of the US state names and state capitols, well as transdeletions and transadditions. But in this article, I look at transposals of state nicknames (both current and no longer in use), state slogans (used for promoting tourism, past and present), as well some of the legends that appear on vehicle license plates from different states.
Dvorak Typewriter Words, Tristan Miller
Dvorak Typewriter Words, Tristan Miller
Word Ways
In the November 1999 Word Ways Mike eith explored the subject of wordplay based on the typewriter keyboard - that is, words which can be typed with certain well-defined restrictions, such as using only one keyboard row, or alternating hands for each successive letter. Keith's findings were based on QWERTY, the most common keyboard layout in the English-speaking world. In this article we improve upon some of Keith's QWERTY records and repeat most of his original challenges with another popular English Keyboard layout, the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard.
Overlapping Names, A. Ross Eckler
Overlapping Names, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
Recently Ray Love pointed out an unusual feature of his full name: it can be written out as one continuous word, as RaymonDaneiLove. He writes "No one I know has a name that does this...perhaps one name in a thousand or ten thousand has this rare characteristic...is this something that can be quantified?"
Compound Interest, Arthur Schulman
Compound Interest, Arthur Schulman
Word Ways
More than 90% of the elements of the periodic table consist of consonants which, rearranged with the appropriate vowels, may produce new (and occasionally apposite) words. Here are some that I found.
Some Excerpts From The Scibulations Of Jerry Andrus, Jerry Andrus
Some Excerpts From The Scibulations Of Jerry Andrus, Jerry Andrus
Word Ways
Excerpts from the writings of Jerry Andrus.
The Rotas Square - A Numerical Challenge, Susan Thorpe
The Rotas Square - A Numerical Challenge, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
The history of the discovery, and significance, of the Rotas square has been documented in detail in Word Ways, particularly by Dmitri A. Borgmann (WW November 1979 page 195.). I do not intend to delve into that aspect of the square here.
The Pun Is In Fashion...And The Fun Is In Passion, Don Hauptman
The Pun Is In Fashion...And The Fun Is In Passion, Don Hauptman
Word Ways
A news story on October 21, 2011 reported that Spain's separatist ETA group had pledged to end its four decades of violent protests. Thus, one of the all-time classic spoonerisms had become reality: All the Basques were put in one exit! This provoked a profound question: Could spoonerisms explain all important events?
High Single-Turn Scrabble Scores, Jeff Grant
High Single-Turn Scrabble Scores, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
According to Guinness World Records (2008), the highest single-turn Scrabble score in a real game is 392 points achieved by Karl Khoshnaw (UK) on 11 April 1982 when he played the nine-timer CAZIQUES spanning two triple word squares.
Russian-English Homoglyphs, Homographs, And Homographic Translations, Tristan Miller
Russian-English Homoglyphs, Homographs, And Homographic Translations, Tristan Miller
Word Ways
A homoglyph is a letter whose visual form is more or less identical to that of a letter in some other alphabet. For example, the Cyrillic uppercase letters A, B, E, K, M, H, O, P, C, T, Y, and X all resemble letters from the Latin alphabet (though they do not necessarily have the same sound values).
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 46, Number 3
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 46, Number 3
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue including the table of contents.