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F
or centuries people have enjoyed playing word
games. Some involve nothing more than talking,
others a pencil and some paper while some are
packaged by toy companies, but they all derive
enjoyment from language and its many peculiarities.
Despite their purpose to entertain and pass the time
there are also many other benefits to playing word
games. People can hone their reading, writing and
comprehension skills with games using words and letters,
and scientific data indicates such games can have real
benefits for mental health.
Riddles
Some of the earliest word games are believed
to have been riddles. Riddles consist of cryptic
phrases containing clues to the answer. This
form forces people to think laterally about the
words, looking for metaphors, double meanings
and puns. In January 2012, a researcher revealed
he had found riddles in translations of ancient
Mesopotamian inscriptions, written in Akkadian
cuneiform, dating back more than 3500 years.
People used to compose perplexing or amusing
riddles, competing to see if they could stump
their rivals. Today riddles are most often used
as a form of children’s humour or written
in Christmas crackers.
Letter
tile games
In the 19th century a
game called Anagrams
was popular in England
and the US. Its tiles
with letters were drawn
at random. Players
made words from the
letters. Other players then
rearranged the letters to
create new words. Many
versions of the game existed,
some homemade, others made
by games companies. In 1931,
architect Alfred Butts modified the
game by making more tiles with the more
commonly used letters. His game was rejected,
but in 1938 he designed a new game called Criss-Cross
Words. It interested manufacturers and with a board,
on which were squares that could increase the score,
became Scrabble. Today its variations include boardless versions
such as the recently released Take 2, computer
versions and the online game, Words With Friends.
Wordsearch
Wordsearch games are often derided as
the simplest of word puzzles. They require
players to find the letters of a word hidden
in a grid of many letters. While many
other word games have ancient origins,
the first known published wordsearch
puzzle is traced to American man
Norman E. Gibat. He created his puzzle
for The Selenby Digest, a free local
digest of advertising in Oklahoma
in 1968. It was so popular that the
concept spread around the country.
Variations included French Canadian
Jo Ouellet’s Wonderword puzzle, in which the
leftover letters spell out another word. Wordsearch
puzzles hone the ability to recognise patterns of letters as words.
Can you find any more animals in the
wordsearch puzzle on the left?
15
Series 12
Benefits of playing
word games
Word
Working on puzzles can benefit your brain the same way
as exercise benefits your body. Solving word puzzles
helps by developing reasoning
skills, memory, creativity and
mental flexibility. At any age
word games will improve
your memory and language
skills, and exercising your mindmuscles also helps with long-term
learning and retaining information.
Without enough stimulation and activity,
the human brain can degenerate rapidly and
become less able to learn and process new information.
Scientific studies have shown that staying mentally active
by challenging your brain with puzzles can help prevent or
delay age-related brain illnesses such as dementia.
Crossword puzzles
A crossword puzzle uses a grid of squares, with some blacked out and
others blank. Solving them requires filling in blank squares with
words worked out from clues. The clue numbers match identical
numbers on horizontal and vertical words in the diagram. The
words cross each other, giving the puzzle its name. Most
puzzles are squares filled with smaller black and white
squares. Clues can be simple, such as “something to sit
on”, or complex puns and anagrams used in cryptic
crosswords. Puzzles may relate to themes such as
music, sports, literature, or geography. Crossword
variations include asymmetrical squares,
pictorial designs and puzzles with no black
squares and no word ends marked.
Italian journalist and puzzle fanatic Giuseppe
Airoldi is credited with creating the first
crossword-type puzzle in 1890. Airoldi called
his puzzle Per passare il tempo (To pass the
time). It was four squares by four squares,
with no black squares and horizontal and
vertical clues. It was published on
September 14, 1890, in the Italian
magazine Il Secolo Illustrato
della Domenica.
The first English-language
crossword was diamondshaped and called a
word-cross. It was designed
by English-born journalist
Arthur Wynne, who worked for
the New York World’s Sunday Fun
supplement. The puzzle, published
on December 21, 1913, was an
instant hit.
 Arthur Wynne said he based his puzzle on
a game played in ancient Pompeii. In English,
the game would be called Magic Squares,
where players are given a group of words
to arrange on a grid so words read the same
way across and down.
 Scholars have made crosswords that are
entirely in Latin.
 During World War II a crossword puzzle
published in a newspaper was discovered to
have in its solution some of the code words
for the D-Day landings. It is believed to have
been merely a coincidence.
 Anagrams are words or phrases made
by moving letters to create another word or
phrase. For instance, MARCH is an anagram
of CHARM. Scrabble players have to rearrange
tiles to create words, so anagrams are
good practice.
 Cryptograms, which involve cracking
Word games are a great way to pass the time
during periods of enforced inactivity such as
while sitting in a train or plane.
a code, provide practice with rearranging
letters. A cryptogram puzzle has short
pieces of encrypted text or numbers
substituted for letters.
Make your own
word game
Games such as Scrabble encourage you to
build your vocabulary by using a dictionary.
H
Charades
m a French word “charra”,
The word charade comes fro
ginally it was a kind of
meaning entertainment. Ori
ich written or spoken
wh
in
e
18th-century riddle gam
h letter, syllable or part of
clues would be given to eac
s also popular in the early
a longer word. The form wa
example:
19th century in England. For
gloom; You
me
kso
“My first dispels the dar
third with
My
e;
hom
a
’tis
,
love my second
for
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is
r
we
wand’ring tar.’’ The ans
y, people were
tur
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19t
the
of
By the middle
r to
refe
to
using the word “charade”
word
or
es
abl
syll
the
a game where
.
ally
visu
out
ed
act
re
we
parts
the
is
es
rad
This version of cha
ay.
one most people know tod
It has its own rules about
ce
word categories, for instan
er
eth
tog
ds
han
the
g
din
hol
k
and opening them like a boo
out
act
to
ut
abo
are
denotes you
or a sign
the syllables of a book title,
ple
peo
get
’’ to
for the phrase “sounds like
words. There
to think of similar sounding
and television
e
gam
rd
boa
n
have even bee
used to help
versions. The game can be
to be able
ls,
skil
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children develop soc
ables and
syll
into
rds
wo
n
to break dow
rbal
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non
parts and to learn to use
.
tion
rma
info
ways to convey
One of the most popular word
games is Pictionary.
For free teacher
resources visit
thetelegraph.com.au/classmate
Did you know?
n
Hangman
m
n
This is a simple word game for two players. One
person,
who plays executioner, thinks of a word and
marks a line
for each letter. They also draw a gallows. The
second
person has to guess the letters in the word. For
each
incorrect guess the executioner draws part of
a stick
man, starting with the head. The game is lost
if the
executioner draws the whole person.
e can be fun,
While playing a word gam
mind, try making
challenging and expand the
one that
be
can
It
e.
your own word gam
paper or
and
cil
pen
,
rds
boa
s,
grid
uses tiles,
es can
gam
rd
Wo
even silent hand gestures.
g an
tin
wri
and
es
clu
g
vin
involve either sol
s of
set
ng
odi
answer, unscrambling or dec
making
ng,
ani
me
a
or
rd
letters, guessing a wo
for
g
kin
rds or loo
associations between wo
you
e
gam
of
t
sor
hidden words. Decide what
es and
gam
g
stin
exi
ut
abo
nk
want to create, thi
yourself
Ask
on.
variati
then try to make your own
want
you
if
or
d,
nee
ht
what equipment you mig
your
if
e
cid
ipment. De
to create one without equ
a
ke
ma
you
l
wil
or
ll
game will have levels of ski
ce
On
ts.
pan
tici
par
of
game for a wide range
ipment,
you have the concept, equ
of
s
ect
asp
er
oth
and
s
rule
the game sorted out,
think of a catchy
name to call
your game.
Sources & further study
Books
According To Hoyle, by Richard L Frey and
Edmond Hoyle (Ballantine)
The Game Of Words by Willard R. Espy (Black
Dog & Leventhal)
The Word Spy and The Return Of The Word Spy
by Ursula Dubosarsky (Penguin)
WEB SITES
Sex, Beer & Politics: Riddles Reveal Life Of
Ancient Mesopotamians www.livescience.
com/18147-ancient-riddles-decodedmesopotamia.html
Free printable word search puzzles www.
classhelper.org/word_search_puzzles.shtml
Encyclopaedia Britannica britannica.com
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Editor: Troy Lennon Additional writing: Marea Donnelly Graphics: Paul Leigh and Will Pearce