My Word Games Blog

Jul 30, Crazy Two Letter Words Allowed In Scrabble

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:28:55 GMT

Here is a complete list of all the two letter words allowed in Scrabble, along with a clever way to remember them...

Jul 27, How do experts memorize alphagrams with the words?

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:06:30 GMT

DO THEY ACTUALLY CRAM THE ALPHABETICAL ARRANGEMENT WITH THE WORDS, OR DO THEY JUST ROUTINELY FAMILIARIZE THEMSELVES WITH THE ARRANGEMENT. I AM TRYING OUT

Jul 27, Does a challenge to a word which is correct cost the challenger their turn?

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:36:58 GMT

If a word is challenged and is looked up in the dictionary and is found to be correct, does the person who challenged incorrectly, lose the next turn?

Jul 27, Snooze you lose?

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:45:17 GMT

My husband and I along with our 11 year old son were playing Scrabble. The game was almost over and I just finished playing my turn and went to take more

Jul 27, Adult Spelling Bee Champion Gives His Top Tips

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:13:02 GMT

Adult spelling bee champion David Riddle gives detailed advice on how to win a spelling bee.

Jul 26, Online Scrabble Dictionary for Scrabble Cheats

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:28:27 GMT

Avoid arguments, or cheat, with this handy online Scrabble dictionary. It's easy to use, and completely free..

Jul 25, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:36:22 GMT

— Written for Monterey County's The Herald Last month I heard the heart-charging announcement of my imminent stage debut. I was selected as one

Jul 24, Word Puzzles and Games - Very Cool Gift Ideas

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 06:32:47 GMT

Classy and original gift ideas for lovers of word puzzles and games.

Jul 18, I have a bag of Scrabble tiles with no numeric values, only letters

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:17:25 GMT

About 20 years ago I purchased what I thought was a bag of Scrabble tiles. They look exactly like Scrabble tiles but they only have the letter - there's

Jul 18, Crossword Puzzle Making Resources

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:09:44 GMT

Meet the man behind the most important crossword puzzle making resource on the Web.

Jul 18, NIWUZZLE

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:08:08 GMT

A Niwuzzle is a nine-letter word puzzle. Each of the nine individual puzzles contains a nine-letter word. They can start with any letter, but subsequent

Jul 16, Solving Crossword Puzzles Online

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:24:02 GMT

How to find, download, and solve free crossword puzzles online. Not just any puzzles either - these are the highest quality crosswords on the Web.

Jul 14, Scrabble Hooks

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:03:00 GMT

An interesting investigation into long sequences of Scrabble hooks. The technical term is 'maximal hook chains'.

Jul 14, Ruling on who goes first for the next Scrabble game

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:56:21 GMT

Once a game of Scrabble has finished and another game is about to begin with the same players, does the loser or the winner of the previous game place

Jul 14, Can the same word be used twice in a single turn?

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:33:50 GMT

My opponent added a letter 'X' next to two 'A' tiles making the word 'AX' twice. Because it fell on a pink square it gave him 36 points. Can he do that?

Jul 12, Site navigation changes

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:25:58 GMT

Hi there folks - you may have noticed that Word-Buff.com keeps changing of late. That's because I'm in the process of completely revamping the navigation based on feedback I've received from visitors. Sorry if it's a bit confusing, but the final navigation should be much better! All the best, Derek, aka Word-Buff

Jul 9, How to Solve Crossword Puzzles

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:22:57 GMT

Learn how to solve crossword puzzles with these 5 Hot Tips from champion crossword solvers.

Jul 8, EULACHON

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:05:56 GMT

Word Meaning — n. A fish found in the Northern Pacific Ocean that is so oily it is sometimes dried and wicked for use as a candle - hence its more

Jul 8, Totally Unfair Crossword Puzzle Solver Library

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:50:57 GMT

A crossword puzzle solver collection that won't leave any empty squares ...

Jul 7, Adding a tile to each end of a Scrabble word

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:38:53 GMT

Can you place tiles on either end of a word (in one turn) that is already on the Scrabble board? For example, if WORD is down, could one person (in one

Jun 30, Crossword Solving Secrets

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:59:21 GMT

Hot tips from America's crossword solving champion Dan Feyer.

Jun 28, BLUEBEARD

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:46:54 GMT

Word Meaning — n. 1. A fairy-tale character whose seventh wife found the bodies of her predecessors in a room she had been forbidden to enter. 2.

Jun 21, MBAQANGA

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 06:35:25 GMT

Word Meaning — n. pl-s. A South African dance music. A style of South African music with rural Zulu roots that continues to influence musicians

Jun 20, Kings Cup Standings

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 03:43:34 GMT

Here's the latest update on the 2010 Kings Cup Scrabble Tournament being held in Bangkok. The update is provided by the tournament director, John Chew... "As we enter the final day of the 25th annual King's Cup tournament organized by Amnuay Ploysangngam here in Bangkok, reigning World Champion Pakorn Nemitrmansuk is in the lead at 16-5 +1180, followed by 2007 World Youth Champion David Eldar at 16-5 +875. Pakorn is playing third-ranked Odette Rio of the Philippines in the annotated game at Board 1 right now, and David is playing fourth-ranked Marut Siriwangso at Board 2. North America is represented by Jason Katz-Brown and Sam Kantimathi, both at 12-9 and in respectively 15th and 17th place. We have six rounds left of regular play, followed by a modified best-of-three finals. The winner will have his or her name engraved on the King's Cup, and receive USD 10,000. Thanks to generous sponsorship, every player will receive at least one monetary prize this year: for example, each win today earns a player 100 baht (or about US$3)."

Jun 17, VALETUDINARIAN

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:24:37 GMT

Missed in an adult spelling bee. Meaning a person who enjoys poor health and takes advantage of it

Jun 10, If I miss counting some points, does my opponent receive them?

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:15:47 GMT

During a Scrabble game I missed counting some points on an intersecting word. My opponent noticed this and first gave me the points, but later said, if

Jun 5, Free Online Crossword Puzzles

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 22:24:04 GMT

Where's the best place to get good quality free online crossword puzzles? Also, what do I need on my computer to solve them? Hi Adrian - this is one of

Jun 5, Congratulations to Anamika Veeramani

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 10:34:55 GMT

Anamika Veeramani is the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion! Congratulations Anamika! In case you were wondering, Anamika's final correctly spelled word was STROMUHR, which is a medical instrument used to measure the rate of blood flow through an artery (obviously!).

Jun 4, And then there were 10...

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 22:21:20 GMT

Well folks, the 273 Scripps National Spelling Bee hopefuls have been whittled down to just ten. These incredible spellers will fight it out very soon on national television (ABC, America - 8 PM Eastern Time). To see the finalists, and the words that knocked out most of the semifinalists, see the following page (scroll down to the comments section where I keep you updated)...

Jun 4, Wordipelago

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 09:33:36 GMT

This is a massively multi-player on-line word game I'm building just for fun! Think Scrabble, on an infinite board, against the whole world :-) http://wordipelago.com/

Jun 3, Adding letters after a challenge

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 07:27:18 GMT

My husband put the word varmint down where the M was already on the board. I questioned the spelling and we agreed on a friendly challenge. He was right.

Jun 1, The Putnam County Spelling Bee

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:52:54 GMT

The story behind The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - possibly the funniest production about spelling bees ever made.

May 25, Word-Buff Stuff! Issue #3 Is Out!

Tue, 25 May 2010 22:00:34 GMT

Well folks, Issue #3 is out the door! I've unlocked the Members-Only page, so feel free to pop on over there to see the new stuff. If you're a subscriber, and your issue hasn't arrived, please let me know here and I'll sort it out for you. If you got your issue, but the formatting is all wrong, you can view the issue, and archived issues, from the link I give you in the Members-Only Area. Finally, don't hesitate to give feedback, good or bad, about the issue to help me improve the next one. I hope you enjoy Issue #3. Derek, aka Word-Buff

May 23, Members-Only Area Upgrade!

Sun, 23 May 2010 14:44:18 GMT

If you're a Word-Buff Stuff! subscriber, and you're having trouble accessing the Members Only area, please don't worry - I've temporarily locked it down for a good reason ;-) The latest Word-Buff Stuff! newsletter is about to go out over the next couple of days, and I've added some new stuff to the Members Only area to dovetail with this issue. When you receive your newsletter this week, you should be able to log straight in with your usual password and enjoy the new puzzles and freebies there. Hope you like it! Derek, aka Word-Buff P.S. If you're not a subscriber, and you'd like to know how to sign up, it's completely FREE. You can find out more here.

May 22, Three Tips For Solving Anagrams

Sat, 22 May 2010 04:03:27 GMT

Get better at solving anagrams with these tips from word game gurus.

May 20, Scrabble Words from A to Z

Thu, 20 May 2010 15:00:24 GMT

What are all the legal Scrabble words and which ones should you learn? Find out here...

May 16, Scripps National Spelling Bee Words

Sun, 16 May 2010 13:19:20 GMT

The ultimate guide to Scripps National Spelling Bee words.

May 16, Spelling Bee Words - My Favorites and Yours

Sun, 16 May 2010 01:01:40 GMT

A whole swag of killer spelling bee words, along with some fun spelling bee moments.

May 15, IPECACUANHA

Sat, 15 May 2010 07:15:21 GMT

Meaning — The dried root from which the purgative drug IPECAC is obtained. About this Spelling Bee Word — I first came across this word in

May 9, Scripps National Spelling Bee

Sun, 09 May 2010 23:57:16 GMT

Scripps National Spelling Bee is the largest educational competition in the English-speaking world. The National Spelling Bee, as it is usually called,

May 8, GUQIN

Sat, 08 May 2010 06:29:14 GMT

Word Meaning — n. A traditional Chinese stringed instrument. Pronounced goo-CHIN. Here's one in action... Why I Think It's A Cool Word —

May 7, Why do some clues have a question mark when they're not questions?

Fri, 07 May 2010 13:49:24 GMT

In a crossword I'm trying to solve there is a clue West End?, but it isn't a question! So why is there a question mark? Hi Sharon - This is a common practice

May 7, Vocabulary Quizzes Improve Spelling and Reading Comprehension

Fri, 07 May 2010 10:44:51 GMT

These vocabulary quizzes are simply the best way I know to improve spelling, reading comprehension, and your everyday word knowledge.

May 7, Defence

Fri, 07 May 2010 06:34:27 GMT

Besides attacking, we have to defend too. Scoring is not the only way to win. Even when you score a lot of points, you might give your opponents bonus

May 3, Looking up a word after a challenge

Mon, 03 May 2010 21:19:56 GMT

I challenged a word and it was found to be incorrect. Is the person that lost the challenge technically allowed to then look up the correct word for future

Apr 30, Bingo in 38 straight Scrabble games

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 22:58:31 GMT

What are the odds of someone scoring a bingo in 38 consecutive Scrabble games? Hi WJ - well, this is certainly an unusual question ;-) As with all questions

Apr 26, PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPIC-
SILICOVOLCANICONIOSIS

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:47:27 GMT

n. a lung disease caused by the build up of toxic volcanic ash. Why I Think It's A Cool Word Unofficially, it's the longest word ever!! ---------------

Apr 23, Professional Puzzle Maker - Trip Payne

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 22:59:57 GMT

He's a professional puzzle maker, a crossword solving champion, and a master Scrabble player. Meet Trip Payne - a word buff extraordinaire.

Apr 22, Challenge Rule

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:52:10 GMT

I understood from a few years back that if you were challenged you had to use the challenged word in a sentence. A fellow player used the word BA and

Apr 20, Q without U words for Scrabble players

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:30:32 GMT

Avoid being stuck with the Q with this handy list of Q without U Scrabble words