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Problem Solving Strategies In Boggle-Like Games, Benjamin Dickman

Word Ways

George Polya's seminal work "How to Solve it" describes general methods for approaching and solving mathematical problems. The book begins with Polya's four principles for solving a problem: understand the problem, make a plan, carry out the plan, and look back. Much of the remainder of the book is devoted to an encyclopedic listing of different heuristics for use in mathematical problem solving. Polya's work can also be applied in problem solving settings outside of mathematics. For example, to clarify the role of his four principles in tackling a new problem, Polya explores the following non-mathematical question: what single English …

French Numbers, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Word Ways has previously published articles containing transposals and transadditions of the number names, the cardinals, ZERO, ONE, TWO and so on. It has also listed words from which multiple number names can be spelled out (eg TOWNHOUSE contains ONE and TWO, and CONFECTIONERY contains ONE, FORTY and FORTY-ONE).

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.

Instructions To Authors

Word Ways

Instructions to authors and back cover.

Overlaps Part 1, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

If the two words PANT and TRY are merged so that the two letter Ts overlap we obtain the word PANTRY. In other words, the parent word PANTRY will split into the offspring PANT and TRY by duplicating the T. Overlaps may be of any length and can occur anywhere in a word except for the first and last letters.

Look Back!, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Anagram dictionaries come in two versions, a reduced one consisting only of words containing anagrams (SLEUTH and HUSTLE), and a full one consisting of the conversion of each word in a list to its alphabetic ordering (ESCORT to CEORST), followed by the alphabetic ordering of the converted words.

A Poem, Martin Gardner

Word Ways

A short poem.

The Ladies' Diary, 18th Century English Almanacs, And One Frustrating Enigma, Ronnie B. Kon

Word Ways

In the November 2011 Word Ways, Jim Puder points out that the solution I found in the 1783 Ladies' Diary for Eliza Hurst's riddle ("an oven") could not be correct-not only did it make no sense in the context, but the number of answers given did not correspond to the number of questions asked in the 1782 Ladies' Diary. Jim is absolutely correct.

Happily, the correct answer has now been found, but in the process I learned a fair amount about 18th century British almanacs, some of which strikes me as being worth sharing.

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 45, Number 4

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue, including a table of contents

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

When The Name And The Game Are The Same, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

At the 2012 London Olympics, Usain Bolt, the jet-propelled Jamaican dash man, retained his title to as the fastest man ever to sprint upon our planet. The surname BOLT is wonderfully spot on and target perfect for a human flash, the electrifying holder of world records in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.

Eye Spoonerisms, . Anil

Word Ways

Spoonerisms by definition swap sounds, but when written they are often ANAGRAMS that also swap letters, like Spooner's alleged "a wining shit" for "a shining wit". EYE SPOONERIMS are word pairs that swap letters and look like Anagram Spooners but don't swap sounds.

Mapping Mercator, Walt Quader

Word Ways

I had finished my work for the day and had an idle afternoon ahead. So I said to my computer, "Darwin, let's play with 'Mercator' in a word way. Mercator was born 500 years ago."

Kickshaws, David L. Silverman

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

Number Names With A Snowball Letter Distribution, Eric Harshbarger, Mike Keith

Word Ways

The spelling out of numbers in English words is a frequently studied topic by logologists. For example, it has long been known that the numbers 0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 40, 46, 60, 61, 64, 80, 84, and 5000 are the only ones whose written-out names are heterograms (no letter of the alphabet occurs more than once).

Instructions To Authors

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to Word Ways.

Further Transposals From The Dictionary Of American Regional English, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

In the November 2010 issue of Word Ways, I offered 100 transposals from the Dictionary of American Regional English (volumes I-IV, covering the letters A-Sk). Examples included: ambleshoo / smoothable, clearstone / tolerances, gallinapper / apparelling, presmuterian / serpantarium, and sidegodlin / disloigned.

"Get Out Of Your Cave And Smell The Coffee!" Many More Mixed Metaphors And Malaphors, Dan Hauptman

Word Ways

Not long ago, I volunteered to help a worthy cause as a consultant, pro bono. But the experience proved disappointing and frustrating. The panjandrums ignored or rejected my advice. Relating the sad tale to my friend, I griped: "They're turning me away even though I'm offering them gold on a silver platter!"

Anagram Quiz 8, . Anil

Word Ways

A Quiz.

Eggshells-1, Steve Kahan

Word Ways

An eggshell is what remains when two different pairs of identical consonants are removed from a word. Consequently, E S H E is an eggshell which results from the exclusion of two "G"s and two "E"s from the word EGGSHELL.

Ain't Ain't The Same No More, Glenn G. Dahlem

Word Ways

In a recent conversation with a British friend, he and I reflected on evolution of various English words. Both history and geography are factors in changing word definitions, we decided. For example, in England, the word "dame" means a distinguished lady, while in America, it's come to more or less mean any woman. Our conversation drifted to changes in respectability or grammatical correctness of given words. That topic leads to the inevitable--"ain't."

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.

Palindromes From Perth, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

In July this year my wife Pat and I traveled to Perth in Western Australia (WA) to spend a fortnight with our daughter and her husband. While there, I jotted down a few short palindromes, some more fanciful than others.

The Magic Asteroid, Jeremiah Farrell

Word Ways

A game.

Wacky Words And Steiner Systems, Simon Norton

Word Ways

I suspect that many readers will have noticed that all the vowels (including Y) occur at odd positions in the alphabet (let's call them odd letters). This led me to think of the set of words using only odd letters.

The Protean Pastern, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

Scientifically, a PASTERN is the part of the horse's foot between the fetlock and the top of the hoof. In his influential Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson famously misdefined the word as "the knee of the horse." When a woman asked Dr. J to explain why he had botched the definition, he replied, "Ignorance, Madam. Pure ignorance."

Numerical Rhymes, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

The end of the word CONTRAVENE rhymes with the end of "ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN" (117). The alphabetical total (a=1, b=2 etc) of CONTRAVENE is 117. That is the Numerical Rhymes game! I start off with numbers ending in "1". The "seventies" ...37, 47, 57, etc. were the least friendly, producing no well-known words. The relevant words are given in upper case.

Self-Contained Words, Solomon W. Golomb

Word Ways

How empty is the word empty? Since it contains MT, pronounced 'empty" (in the form of eMpTy), it is "self contained", so empty may not be empty after all.

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 45, Number 3

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

Long Pair Isograms, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

Darryl Francis's article New Pair Isograms in the February 2012 Word Ways brought back memories from my early days of dabbling with word play. After discovering the beautiful symmetry of words like HORSESHOER and INTESTINES in Language on Vacation (Dmitri Borgmann, 1965), I spend many hours scouring the Oxford English Dictionary for new examples. Imagine my elation on finding CHARACTERETH and INACCIDENTATED.