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Articles 1141 - 1170 of 4911
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
How Many Shiftgrams In A Word-Set?, A. Ross Eckler
How Many Shiftgrams In A Word-Set?, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
A word possesses a shiftgram if its letters can first be shifted along the alphabet and then transposed to form another word. The classic example MUSIC to QUACK was offered by Alice Gorki and Dimitri Miller in "Sea-Changed Words" in the February 1969 Word Ways.
Answers And Solutions
Word Ways
Answers and solutions to some of the puzzles contained in this issue.
Witwits - Part 1, Steve Kahan
Witwits - Part 1, Steve Kahan
Word Ways
A WITWIT is merely an acronym for "Where In The World Is That?," an orthographic challenge that I introduced in May I Have A Word With You?. In the first of this seven-part series, two dozen letter sequences have been extracted, without interruption, from either the beginning, middle, or end of a word. Reinserting each into its proper position at the rate of one per hour, you'll identify the sources of all these sequences in a single day. Moreover, you'll certainly have the last laugh and avoid a fracas provided you recognize that HAHA came from BROUHAHA!
Instructions To Authors, Back Cover
Instructions To Authors, Back Cover
Word Ways
Instructions to authors wishing to contribute and readers interested in subscribing, as well as the back cover of this issue.
Hospitalisation, Sir Jeremy Morse
The Broad Ripple Puzzle-Game, Jeremiah Farrell, Karen Farrell
The Broad Ripple Puzzle-Game, Jeremiah Farrell, Karen Farrell
Word Ways
As reported in the November issue of Word Ways, Peggy Boulden's class from Indianapolis' Broad Ripple High School recently visited Butler University for a presentation of mathematical word play. In addition to the magic spelling trick described in November we used the nine different letters in BROAD RIPPLE in the following word puzzle.
Synonym Pudding, A. Ross Eckler
Synonym Pudding, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
Webster's Tenth Collegiate dictionary lists synonyms of headword adjectives in two ways: in small caps in the main definition set, and at the end with the heading syn followed by a group of additional small cap synonyms. Approximately 220 of the headword adjectives merit the syn treatment, and the one thousand synonyms they dissect represent about one-sixth of the headword adjectives.
Kickshaws, Dave Morice
Front Cover, Table Of Contents
Front Cover, Table Of Contents
Word Ways
Front Cover, Publication Information, and Table of Contents
A Poem: Natural Order, Jeremy Morse
Trading Places, Richard Lederer, Norm Storer
Trading Places, Richard Lederer, Norm Storer
Word Ways
A number of words become new words when, contemporaneously, the front letter is looped to the back and the back to the front. The first and last letters must be different, of course, and the result of this double loop is that the first and last letters are exchanged. If the middle letters are palindromic, the pair becomes palindromic.
Front Cover, Table Of Contents
Front Cover, Table Of Contents
Word Ways
Front Cover, Publication Information, Table of Contents
Ten-Letter Triangular Progressions, A. Ross Eckler
Ten-Letter Triangular Progressions, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
In the May 2009 Word Ways, Susan Thorpe introduced the concept of a triangular progression. Partition a six-letter word into groups of one, two and three letters. Calculate the numerical value of each group, and determine the difference between groups two and one, and three and two. The object is to find words for which the differences are constant.
Back To Albuquerque Again, Steve Kahan
Back To Albuquerque Again, Steve Kahan
Word Ways
Our third visit to Albuquerque offers a new collection of words named in honor of the city. Each contains a pair of identical letter triads that are separated by at least one other letter. After their excision, any gaps that have been created are closed by compression in order to form the residue of the original word. Said residues, found in Column A, require the reintroduction of appropriately placed triads found in Column B in order to reestablish the original Albuquerque word. As has become customary, five impostors are included in Column B, since each triad is available for use …
Shepherdesses, Jeff Grant
Shepherdesses, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
The 2-letter word MO can be extended by one letter at a time up to the 9-letter MODERNEST, with all combinations being allowable words in international Scrabble: MO, MOD, MODE, MODER, MODERN, MODERNE, MODERNES, MODERNEST. Seven of these are found in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 4th Edition, 2006. The exception is MODER, a layer of humus intermediate between mor and mull (Chambers Dictionary, 1998).
Kickshaws, Dave Morice
A Poem: Pop-Star, Jeremy Morse
Elemental Crossword, Mark J. P. Wolf
Elemental Crossword, Mark J. P. Wolf
Word Ways
With a little bit of imagination, the Periodic Table of Elements can be seen as a rather strange and inelegant crossword puzzle, which is asymmetrical in form and contains such bizarre words like "RbSrYZrNbMoTcRuRhPd" and HLiNaKCuRbAgCaAuFr". After major readjustments, here is a crossword puzzle that solves some of those problems. Each square of the solution contains an element, which, when combined, completes a real word. Some elements are used more often than others, of course, and some are not used at all. One of the interesting things about this crossword is that it is not always clear from the boxes …
More Accidental Tautonyms, Jim Puder
More Accidental Tautonyms, Jim Puder
Word Ways
Tautonyms - i.e., words, phrases, etc. whose spelling is tautological - are of two kinds: terms such as froufrou and Pago Pago, which were fashioned from two or more identical subunits, and terms such as hotshots and valval, which were not. In the first group, tautological spelling is automatic, while in the second group its occurrence is a matter of chance.
Punc Lib Charades, A Anil
Punc Lib Charades, A Anil
Word Ways
Most charades involve respacing the letters, creating new words, as in therapist: the rapist. In contrast the following group do not change the words or spacing, only the punctuation. I call them Punc Lib charades. Like punk kids in the old sense, liberated puncs break out of their cages and run freely among the words wreaking havoc, totally altering if not reversing the meaning. The lowly comma in particular wreaks to high heaven.
Spelling Reform, Mark Setteducati
Spelling Reform, Mark Setteducati
Word Ways
European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union, rather than German, which was the other possibility.
A Poem: Magic Word, Martin Gardner
Word Magic, Martin Gardner
Word Magic, Martin Gardner
Word Ways
These effects are excerpts from Gardner's forthcoming book on word play to be published by Sterling.
Anagram Calendar - Arranged Almanac, Dave Morice
Anagram Calendar - Arranged Almanac, Dave Morice
Word Ways
Anagram Calendar - Arranged Almanac anagrams the names of the 366 dates, the 12 months, and the 7 weekdays. "Each date's anagram is printed in its own calendar square (January First = "Fans, I jury art)," and the weekday anagrams are printed across the top of the grid (Sunday = "Say Dun"). In non-leap years, the square for February 29th should be omitted. The 2010 calendar year starts on a Friday. Any other year can be represented by shifting the anagrams to their appropriate squares.
Punk Whiz 8, A Anil
Spoonertoons 6: "With Phallus Amore Thought", Don Hauptman, Jim Siergey
Spoonertoons 6: "With Phallus Amore Thought", Don Hauptman, Jim Siergey
Word Ways
A collection of illustrations and spoonerisms.
The Logologicomathematical 7x7 Puzzle, Jeremiah Farrell, Robert Friedhoffer
The Logologicomathematical 7x7 Puzzle, Jeremiah Farrell, Robert Friedhoffer
Word Ways
Reprinted with permission from Homage to a Pied Puzzler, ed. by E. Pegg, Jr., A.H. Schoen and T. Rodgers, AK Peters 2009 (www.akpeters.com).
Last Trip To Albuquerque, Steve Kahan
Last Trip To Albuquerque, Steve Kahan
Word Ways
The capital of New Mexico beckons once more with the final collection of twenty five Albuquerque words. As was the case in the previous three journeys, their residues appear in Column A below, the result of eradication of a twice-repeated nonadjacent letter triad. Thirty of these comprise the listing in Column B, including five masquerading impostors. In performing the reconstructive surgery, remember that no triad can be reinserted into more than one residue. The brainpower required to complete this task, while considerable, would probably not phase ST- that's EINSTEIN's residue after the removal of the duplicate triad …
Toward More Efficient Number Mnemonics, Mike Keith
Toward More Efficient Number Mnemonics, Mike Keith
Word Ways
As pointed out by Ross Eckler in the Nov 2008 Word Ways ("Mnemonics for Number Sequences", p. 297), the well-known type of mnemonic which uses the length of successive words to represent a sequence of decimal digits (with a ten-letter word for each occurrence of zero) is not particularly efficient. If the sequence of digits of π and e, for example) then in the long run this scheme will have an "inefficiency ratio", defined as (total number of letters used)/(number of digits represented), of 5.5. This is pretty far away from 1, which could be considered ideal in some …