Master any word game

That‘s right. You read the title, you CAN get better at word games. It could even be fun and rewarding to do so (not counting the satisfaction of finally beating your grandmother at Scrabble). Today, I want to focus on the two most well-known ways to play with vocabulary - those being Scrabble and crosswords - but those tips will help you with many other games. Ready to expand your word knowledge in an effective, fast and useful way? Then let‘s begin.

All in the word

First and foremost, there is no way around it, we have to work on your vocabulary. Simply put: the more words you are used to, the more words you can use and the better you will be at word games. Yes, practice is the best way to learn new words (or anything else for that matter), but there are effective ways to make that learning process intuitive and even seamless. First, remember that exposure is key. The more inputs you have on niche vocabulary, the more you encounter it and the more you remember it. Most often, this is done by reading books (audiobooks work too). I will add that if your goal is to expand your vocabulary, I would suggest reading more older books. Vocabulary like anything else goes in and out of fashion. As such, reading books temporally distant from you increases your chances of encountering new words (to you that is). If you have the interest, specialized reference books are another useful way to learn new words. But, in my mind, the vector which you use to encounter new words matters very little. Just make sure that you do. What is important is that you encounter these words IN CONTEXT at the same time relatable and understandable to you. Yes, you could read a dictionary from start to finish but I am sure that you wouldn‘t remember most of it (not to mention how dull that would be). But I am sure that you remember the word “xylitol“ because of that time your friend did something funny in chemistry class. That is exactly what you want to maximize. My recommendation would therefore be as such. Focus your study on a few words a day and try to make them meaningful to you. Go seek where they come from and what strange stories are linked to them. Read specialized references. Try to use it yourself at least a few times that day. I am sure this will work wonders for you if you commit just a few minutes a day to it.

With a solid vocabulary, you have the base you need to perform in ANY word game.

Unscrambling Scrabble

Now, let‘s go big game hunting. Scrabble. The key in Scrabble is not to know every single word in the English dictionary. Fun fact: since Scrabble has an official dictionary, using any other dictionary does not even guarantee that you could use the words in it in a Scrabble tournament. What is more important is to make sure to have a word toolbox versatile enough to make sure that you can make a word with pretty much any combination of 7 letters. Every turn you skip in Scrabble is a lost opportunity for points. This is why you should minimize wasted turns as much as possible. Let‘s follow with incredibly useful types of words to help you.

Obviously, in Scrabble, you want to make points. So, knowing the most point-earning words in the game will boost your performance tenfold. As such, expect and know a lot of weird words using “X“, “Q“ and the like. The highest-scoring word is possibly “muzhiks“ (an old word for Russian peasants). Other high scorers include quixotic (capricious or unpredictable), maximize, oxidized, jezebel (morally unrestrained woman), flapjack (pancake) and defuzing. “Kwyjibo“ (popularized by The Simpsons) IS NOT currently accepted in Scrabble.

In the spirit of finding a word for every situation, it can be useful to know a few words without any vowels. Those include nymphs, pygmy, flybys or xylyl (a radical of xylene). The longest word with only consonants is (I think) crwths, a Welsh instrument. Words made with only vowels can also be useful. The longest I know of is euouae (a specific Gregorian musical cadence). Words with abnormally many vowels for their length can also help. Here are 3 4-letter words made with 3 vowels: acai, aeon and agio. Let me add 2 7-letter words with 5 vowels: aboulia and aeonian.

Finally, when you don‘t know what to do, your best friends will be two-letter words. They are very easy to find and almost a cheat sometimes. The highest-scoring two-letter words include ex, ox, jo (a sweetheart), ka (abbreviation for cathode), ki, xi (greek letter), xu (Vietnamese coin) and za (slang for pizza). Qi is also great. Of course, some two-letter words are made just with vowels aa, ai, oe, oy, ye, ae, ay, oi, ya and yo) or just consonants (like hm and by). With everything I showed you, I know you can win your next game.

Crossing the “i“

For our next challenge, let‘s tackle the daily crossword. Your first task should be to pinpoint one of the longest words in the grid. Why? Two reasons. First, larger words are easier to guess since they generally have more characteristic definitions/clues and fewer competing words for their place. Second, the first words you find are very important since they will become crucial clues to find the next. The longer the word, the more letter clues you have for the rest! Still, some clues are common threats to crosswords. Those can be your worst adversaries. Clues like “cut“ or “split“ are quite popular since they are flexible and general clues that can fit more than 30 words. They can be a pain, but they can also be your greatest clues. Indeed, if you take the time to study these common belligerents a bit, you will be able to answer them much more quickly. Here‘s a list of very common clues you should study for yourself: up, put away, cut, split, like, place, follow and hot.

Next, some words are easy in a crossword and you should pick some up quickly. Unfortunately, the hardest words to find are more often those gap-fillers, smaller trickier words that you may not know of. Here, we can use a similar strategy to before. Some short words have been favourites of cruciverbalists for many years. To give you a headstart, the most common words since the 1990s in the New York Times are: odor, aloe, aria, else, idea, eden, ante, ale, erie, ore, erato, esau, aioli and emir. Get familiar with those. If you are curious to learn more, you can dig up the New York Times crossword database which is open to the public.

Any last words?

That will be all for today. With these simple tricks, you will see your game scores improved greatly, I am sure. For the rest, you just need some practice. I know you can do that on your own.

For the rest, I look forward to your next vocabulary acquisition. See you next week until then.