Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Linguistics (4053)
- Linguistic (845)
- Puzzles (38)
- Palindromes (34)
- Puzzle (29)
-
- Quiz (29)
- Transposals (15)
- Games (13)
- Puns (13)
- Anagrams (10)
- Poem (9)
- Poems (9)
- Word puzzle (9)
- Mathematics (8)
- Poetry (8)
- Homophones (6)
- Transpositions (6)
- Alice in Wonderland (5)
- Crossword (5)
- Obituary (5)
- Project (5)
- Word-play (5)
- Alphametics (4)
- Butler University (4)
- Lewis Carroll (4)
- Magic Squares (4)
- Martin Gardner (4)
- G4G (3)
- Gathering for Gardner (3)
- Humor (3)
- Publication Year
- File Type
Articles 2791 - 2820 of 4911
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Yet More Fabled Phrases, Peter Newby
Words Newfound, Words Reobserved, Darryl Francis
Words Newfound, Words Reobserved, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
This article started life as a collection of odd slips of paper. While thumbing through dictionaries, or researching for other articles, I am inclined to note interesting words for possible use later. These words are usually irrelevant to the piece of research I am doing at the time, but they look good fodder for reexamination later on. I have a file stuffed full of these oddballs. In an attempt to downsize the file, I decided to bring 26 of these items together in this article, each one representing a different letter of the alphabet.
The Ultimate Presidential Rectangle?, Leonard Gordon
The Ultimate Presidential Rectangle?, Leonard Gordon
Word Ways
Obsessed by the presidential rectangle problem, I fiddled with it during bouts of insomnia with the following results: a perfect 396-cell rectangle and a defective 391-cell one (BUSH disconnected). A perfect 391-cell specimen may be possible - surely the ultimate?
Vowelindromes Revisited, John Foster
Vowelindromes Revisited, John Foster
Word Ways
In "The Vowlindrome" in the August Word Ways, Stephen Chism overlooked a third vowelindrome. All words but MEM are in Chambers 20th Century Dictionary.
The Aeginrst Transposal: Part 1, Jeff Grant
The Aeginrst Transposal: Part 1, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
All 24 combinations of the letters AEST make a word, from AEST, an obsolete form of 'east' through to TSE-A, a Keresan tribe of New Mexico. The halfway mark has been achieved for AELST (63) and AERST (64), from a possible 120 transposals. These feats are recorded in "Transposing Rates" in the November 1987 Word Ways and the current Colloquy. As far as I am aware, no comprehensive study of six-letter or seven-letter sets has ever been undertaken, but at the next level the remarkable transposability of the eight letters AEGINRST has been recognized by wordsmiths for most of this …
On Babbage And Babbling, Enoch Haga
On Babbage And Babbling, Enoch Haga
Word Ways
Here are few random thoughts and comments for the logologist. As a retired mathematics teacher, it's been my experience that people interested in recreational mathematics are also interested in recreational linguistics.
Personal Anagrams, Harry L. Stern
Personal Anagrams, Harry L. Stern
Word Ways
The appeal in constructing anagrams lies in the balance between the extreme confinement of working with a fixed set of letters and the tremendous room for exploration afforded by all the permutations of those letters. If I were required to write a poem, without any restrictions on the form or content, my brain would quickly enter a state of paralysis; for without constraints on the assignment, the possibilities are infinite - and overwhelming.
Word-Order Spoonerisms: A Reply, Don Hauptman
Word-Order Spoonerisms: A Reply, Don Hauptman
Word Ways
In the May 1993 Word Ways, Kickshaws editor David Morice asked "Have you every run across any sentences that switched words around to achieve a different effect - a kind of word-order spoonerism?"
Answers And Solutions
Word Ways
Answers and solutions to the puzzles and games contained in this issue.
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 26 Issue 4
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 26 Issue 4
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue.
Rare Maps For Collectors, Lee Sallows
Rare Maps For Collectors, Lee Sallows
Word Ways
Three previous articles in Word Ways [1,2,3] have discussed ways of mapping distinct integers onto letters so as to produce "perfect" or self-descriptive number-names. So far English, French, and Spanish have been examined. Glancing next at German, the same pencil and paper plus computer program approach already outlined in [1] can be used to find mappings such as:
Cheater's Palindromes: Part 1, Walter Fretlaw
Cheater's Palindromes: Part 1, Walter Fretlaw
Word Ways
In the November 1990 Word Ways, Dave Morice's Kickshaws column gave pride of place to Cheater's Palindromes of various writers, most notably those of Jeff Grant. Many readers consider that 'cheater' is a modifying noun to suggest that some of the words in such palindromes are spurious. However, cheating in this context really implies tantalizing, as the contentious words are either obscure or of foreign origin.
Ultimate Homophones, Richard Lederer, Al Greengold, William Ward, Miriam Espinosa
Ultimate Homophones, Richard Lederer, Al Greengold, William Ward, Miriam Espinosa
Word Ways
Abstract unavailable.
Aeiou Words In Biology: Part 1, Susan Thorpe
Aeiou Words In Biology: Part 1, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
Less than a handful of major articles dealing with AEIOU words (words in which each of the five vowels A, E, I, O and U occurs once) have appeared in Word Ways over the years. In November 1969 Ross Eckler, in "Unsociable Housemaid Discourages Facetious Behavior", compiled a type-collection of such words from Merriam-Webster dictionaries and other sources.
An Improved Presidential Rectangle, Leonard Gordon
An Improved Presidential Rectangle, Leonard Gordon
Word Ways
In the May 1993 Word Ways, Darryl Francis presented a presidential rectangle: the names of 37 U.S. presidents joined within a 17x29 frame. In August, Lee Sallows presented the same names within a 19x22 frame, but his names are not all joined - a fatal flaw. Fallows states that some "purist" might criticize his result, and challenges readers to "produce a fully-connected layout of the same area". It can be done easily!
The Unstoppable Aeginrst-Machine, Darryl Francis
The Unstoppable Aeginrst-Machine, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
The unstoppable AEGINRST machine grinds on, creating new transposals of those eight letters, allowing delighted logologists to add a few more notches to the AEGINRST holster!
The Tell-Tale Typewriter, Enoch Haga
The Tell-Tale Typewriter, Enoch Haga
Word Ways
In the Oakland Tribune of April 2, 1971, there appeared "Most Common Typo" in the Ann Landers column, a tale of suspected typewriter crime. It seems that a frantic father had written to Ann about a letter that his wife, in her sixth year of analysis, had received from her 18-year-old daughter, who was away at college.
Pig Lawns And Diaper Spas, Christopher Mcmanus
Pig Lawns And Diaper Spas, Christopher Mcmanus
Word Ways
Surprise is a key ingredient of wordplay's charm. Many forms of wordplay amuse us by rearranging one word's letters into two or more unrelated, unexpected words. One basic class of letter rearrangements is Word interlocks. Interlocks are the rearrangements that split a word but preserve the original letter-ordering in the derived words. The title of this article includes two amusing interlocks: laPwInGs and DIsAPpEaRs.
Significantly-Different Word Squares, Leonard Gordon
Significantly-Different Word Squares, Leonard Gordon
Word Ways
In a May 1993 Word Ways article, Donald Knuth says that the reason his computer found so many 5x5x5 word cubes is that so many five-letter words can be tweaked" into others. Each tweak or combination of tweaks can produce a new cube, only slightly different from the old one.
Quancrete Poetry, Charles Suhor
Quancrete Poetry, Charles Suhor
Word Ways
In t he February 1993 Word Ways, David Morice wrote about crossnumber forms, a rule-governed arrangement of grids composed of numbers that are spelled out. the goal in crossnumber forms is to discover nontrivial patterns of horizontal and vertical interconnectedness, as in two of Morice's simple but elegant examples:
Ten-Square Hunters, Unite!, Ted Clarke
Ten-Square Hunters, Unite!, Ted Clarke
Word Ways
According to the wordsquare pundits, it would appear that they give themselves Buckleys of creating a generally-acceptable tensquare. Nevertheless, although there is widespread agreement among them that the time required to exhaust all possibilities could well be extra-universal, many are devoting Sisyphean time and effort to the compilation of ever-lengthening lists of ten-letter words.
Fair Is Foul And Foul Is Fair, Howard Richler
Fair Is Foul And Foul Is Fair, Howard Richler
Word Ways
One of the sophomoric jokes making the rounds in the early Sixties explains the difference between a good girl and a nice girl as follows: the good girl goes to a party, goes home, and goes to bed; the nice girl goes to bed, then goes home.
Dialect Drinking, Jeff Grant
Dialect Drinking, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
Just about everyone enjoys a tipple from time to time, some more than others. The language associated with drinking and drinkers is the most colorful of all activities. Anybody who has marveled at the record of 2231 ways to say "drunk" in the section "Soused Synonyms" in Paul Dickson's "Words" (Delacorte Press, 1982) appreciates the variety and humour that flows from the tosspot's tipsified tongue.
Word-Square Support: Part 2, A. Ross Eckler
Word-Square Support: Part 2, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
This is the second of two articles examining the statistical characteristics of the support for a word square (the sample size needed to produce, on the average, a single word square). In the preceding article, published in the August 1993 Word Ways, a method was developed for calculating the support from small sample sizes - ones large enough to typically produce only a few squares, rather than the thousands of millions found by Chris Long.
Miscommunication Code Words, Chris Cole
Miscommunication Code Words, Chris Cole
Word Ways
Many letters have sound-alike names, for example "b" and "p": radio operators use communication code words such as BRAVO and PETER to avoid confusing these letters. A committee of logologists got together to try to submit a more interesting list of code words, drawing only on words from Webster's Third. Here is the list they produced (B, N, R, and S need better examples):
Basque Palindromes, Dan Tilque
Basque Palindromes, Dan Tilque
Word Ways
Recently, I've been looking through foreign language dictionaries in search of additions to Jeff Grant's "The Palindromicon" (Word Ways Monograph Series 3). I've found an unusual set of them in the Basque-English Dictionary by Gorky Aulestin which I would like to share with World Ways readers.
Kickshaws, David Morice
Baby Talk, Kay Haugaard
Baby Talk, Kay Haugaard
Word Ways
"Here, - let Daddy help Mikie down from the step. He might hurt himself if he jumped."