My Word Games Blog
Jan 07, 2013
Just a small New Years gift to you from Word Buff
I thought I'd kick off the New Year with a small gift for you: my latest eBook, Unscrambled: The Ultimate Anagram Solver is now FREE for the next couple of days.
To download it right now from Amazon without parting with a cent of your hard-earned cash, just click here.
I hope you get the same enjoyment from it I've been hearing back from other word buffs ;-)
Cheers
Derek McKenzie, aka Word Buff
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Dec 07, 2012
Weird Little Words that Win Word Games..
At last, Volume 2 in my Totally Unfair Word Game Guides series is finished! Here's a little taster...
And I'm thrilled to announce it is already an AMAZON BESTSELLER in three categories ;-)
Check it out here...
Dec 01, 2012
The 8 Letter Words Every Scrabble Player Should Know...
Last week I sent out a little word-study booklet containing the Top 500 Seven Letter Words in Scrabble, and I was blown away by its popularity. Dozens of thankyous and several thousand downloads in just a few days!
(If you missed that email, or if you've only just subscribed to Word Buff, the download links are all there in the right hand column.)
So this weekend you'll be happy to hear that I have Part 2 ready for you: the Top 500 Eight Letter Words in Scrabble.
Like last time, it's all explained in the introduction to the booklet, so just click the link or the image below to download it to your computer right now and get started ;-)
You'll now have a total of 1000 high-probability bonus words to study over the Christmas break, and when you're done I'll bet your Scrabble scores increase in leaps and bounds!
Continue reading "The 8 Letter Words Every Scrabble Player Should Know..."
Nov 27, 2012
The 7 Letter Words Every Scrabble Player Should Know...
Just a quickie to let you know about a new word-study booklet I've put together for Word Buff subscribers. This one is all about seven letter words, and should help you get that 50 bonus points much more often.
In the booklet I've collected and organized the 500 most important seven letter words in Scrabble. It is all laid out in a way that makes it nice and easy to practice unscrambling the racks that give rise to these words, and to learn their meanings while you're at it!
It's all explained in the introduction, so just click the link or the image below to download it to your computer right now and get started ;-)
Continue reading "The 7 Letter Words Every Scrabble Player Should Know..."
Sep 23, 2012
Word of the Day Archive is Live!
Good news for readers who've been asking me how to view previous daily words.
You can now browse past issues of my Word of the Day online at your own leisure.
Or, if you prefer, you can get it by email by subscribing when you get there.
Here's the link for when you've got a free minute to take a peek...
Sep 19, 2012
Word of the Day is BACK! Do you know what AEOLIAN means?
Howdy all,
Well, after a 3-month hiatus I have reinstated my popular Word of the Day, and made it bigger and better than before.
If you haven't already subscribed to it (i.e. if you haven't already received the article about AEOLIAN) you can take a peek here.
If you think it looks interesting, you can subscribe when you get there.
All the best,
Derek, aka Word Buff
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Aug 07, 2012
A New Release of the Free Zyzzyva Program
I've released a new version of Zyzzyva, 2.2.0. Zyzzyva is a programfor studying words, practicing anagramming, and adjudicatingchallenges. It runs on Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7; Linux 32-bit and64-bit systems; and Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later. You can get the latestversion here:
http://zyzzyva.net/download.shtml
The main new features are Part of Speech and Definition search, and apassword on the Word Judge feature. This version does NOT update thesaved quiz format to be able to sync with the iPhone app. But thatfeature is the very next feature I plan to implement.
For Part of Speech and Definition searches to work, you'll need torebuild your lexicon databases by using the Tools > Rebuild Databasesmenu option. For now, you can't do anything fancy like patternmatching in definitions. You can only search for literal matches. Forthe Part of Speech search, simply type the part of speech as itappears in the definition, e.g. "n" for nouns, "v" for verbs.
To specify a password when starting the Word Judge, type a password ofyour choosing into both input areas. When a password is set, hittingESC in the Word Judge will prompt for the password instead of exiting.The Word Judge will only exit if you enter the correct password. Also,when you start the Word Judge, the lexicon is displayed in a verylarge font to help you avoid accidentally using the wrong lexicon.
Here is the complete list of changes in 2.2.0:
* Word Judge password function* ESC to exit Word Judge instead of Shift-ESC* Part of Speech search* Definition search* Shift cardbox contents by number of days* Reverse sort word lists by clicking header* Remove cycles in word definitions* No prompt to save Cardbox quizzes* WWF word list update* Many other minor improvements
Please give me feedback about how you think Zyzzyva could be improved!I'm always trying to make it the best word study program it can be. Ifyou would like more information about Zyzzyva, please join the ZyzzyvaUsers list here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zyzzyva-users/
I hope you enjoy using Zyzzyva, and have fun with it!
Michael Thelen
May 20, 2012
SWIBBISH®, New Word Game Beta
SWIBBISH® is a bold change to your traditional word games. Most word games force you into static game boards, and monotonous letter values. Swibbish employs
Apr 01, 2012
Daily Scrabble Words For March 2012
Here are all of Word Buff's Daily Scrabble Words for March 2012
Mar 16, 2012
Ultimate Vocabulary Discount Offer
Ultimate Vocabulary discount offer for Word Buff members only...
Mar 06, 2012
Word Buff's Word of the Day Now On Email!
Ok folks, just a quickie to let you know that the first email Word of the Day is due out tomorrow (for most of you, that's March 7). If you haven't signed up yet, here's the link!
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Mar 05, 2012
Do You Prefer Words With Friends Or Scrabble?
I'm trying to find out who is playing Words With Friends (WWF) and why people do or don't enjoy the game.
I'm especially interested in whether you prefer it to Scrabble for any reason, or if you just enjoy either game.
Please join in the conversation right here and tell me what *you* think...
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