Word chain

Last updated

Word chain, also known as grab on behind, last and first, alpha and omega, and the name game, [1] [2] [3] is a word game in which players come up with words that begin with the letter or letters that the previous word ended with. A category of words is usually chosen, there is a time limit such as five seconds, [1] [4] and words may not be repeated in the same game. [5] The version of the game in which cities are used is called geography, and a generalized version with place names is called Atlas.

Contents

Time

An example chain for food would be: Soup - Peas - Sugar - Rice. [1]

The game is used as a tool for teaching English as a second language [6] [7] and as a car game. [5]

A similar Japanese game is shiritori, in which the word must begin with the last mora, or kana, of the previous word. It includes a rule for loss: words ending with N may not be used since the kana is never used in the beginning of words. The game antakshari (ant means end, akshar means letter), played in India, Pakistan and Nepal also involves chaining, but with verses of movie songs (usually Bollywood songs). In Russia, a game similar to the Word chain is called Words (Russian: слова), or "A Game of Cities" (Игра в города) if played using city and town names. In French-speaking countries, the game marabout involves the last syllable.

In Chinese languages, a similar game is known as jielong (接龍), where players start new words with the last hanzi of the preceding word. Another variant of the game is known as tzuchuan (字串), which utilises adding, removing or replacing of one of the character's components to form another character. The most popular variant of the game is known as chengyu jielong (成語 接龍), which involves four character idioms instead.

There is also a similar South Slavic game called kalodont, in which players continue the chain by beginning with last two letters of the previous word.

In Korean, a similar game is kkeunmaritgi (끝말잇기), in which players must say a word that starts with the last Hangul letter of the previous word. In Romanian, there is a game called "Fazan" ("Pheasant"), in which players must say a word that starts with the last two letters of the previous word.

Writing poetry following the same principle is called capping verses. [8] [9] Various other variants exist, such as Ancient Greek skolion.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hangman (game)</span> Word game

Hangman is a guessing game for two or more players. One player thinks of a word, phrase, or sentence and the other(s) tries to guess it by suggesting letters or numbers within a certain number of guesses. Originally a paper-and-pencil game, there are now electronic versions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shiritori</span> Japanese word game

Shiritori is a Japanese word game in which the players are required to say a word which begins with the final kana of the previous word. No distinction is made between hiragana, katakana, and kanji. "Shiritori" literally means "taking the end" or "taking the rear".

Constrained writing is a literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anagrams (game)</span> Tile-based word game

Anagrams is a tile-based word game that involves rearranging letter tiles to form words.

<i>Boggle</i> Timed dice-based word game

Boggle is a word game in which players try to find as many words as they can from a grid of lettered dice, within a set time limit. It was invented by Allan Turoff and originally distributed by Parker Brothers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jotto</span> Logic-oriented word game

Jotto is a code-breaking pen and paper word game for two players. Each player picks and writes down a secret word and attempts to guess the other's word first during their turn.

A car numberplate game is a car game playable in the United Kingdom and other countries with a suitable car registration scheme, either looking out for a particular number or characteristic of a number plate, or thinking of a word or phrase that corresponds to the letters of the registration. Most are solitary games, however some can be played individually in competition with other passengers.

A word salad is a "confused or unintelligible mixture of seemingly random words and phrases", most often used to describe a symptom of a neurological or mental disorder. The name schizophasia is used in particular to describe the confused language that may be evident in schizophrenia. The words may or may not be grammatically correct, but they are semantically confused to the point that the listener cannot extract any meaning from them. The term is often used in psychiatry as well as in theoretical linguistics to describe a type of grammatical acceptability judgement by native speakers, and in computer programming to describe textual randomization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Letter case</span> Uppercase or lowercase

Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals and smaller lowercase in the written representation of certain languages. The writing systems that distinguish between the upper- and lowercase have two parallel sets of letters: each in the majuscule set has a counterpart in the minuscule set. Some counterpart letters have the same shape, and differ only in size, but for others the shapes are different. The two case variants are alternative representations of the same letter: they have the same name and pronunciation and are typically treated identically when sorting in alphabetical order.

Ghost is a written or spoken word game in which players take turns to extend the letters of a word without completing a valid word.

<i>Des chiffres et des lettres</i> French television program

Des chiffres et des lettres is a French television programme. It was created by Armand Jammot and tests the numeracy skills and vocabulary of two contestants. It is one of the longest-running game shows in the world, and the inspiration for Countdown on Britain's Channel 4.

<i>Chain Reaction</i> (game show) American television game show

Chain Reaction is an American television game show created by Bob Stewart, in which players compete to form chains composed of two-word phrases.

Chain Letters was a British television game show produced by Tyne Tees and Barry & Enright Productions. The show was recorded at their City Road studios in Newcastle Upon Tyne and first broadcast on ITV in the United Kingdom from 7 September 1987 to 6 July 1990, then again from 2 January 1995 to 25 April 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese input method</span> Methods used to input Japanese characters on a computer

Japanese input methods are used to input Japanese characters on a computer.

Scrabble variants are games created by changing the normal Scrabble rules or equipment.

Lexicant is a paper and pencil word game for two players. A letter is written on a sheet of paper, and each player takes turns adding a letter either to the beginning or the end of this ever-growing word stem. Any word-stem a player creates must form part of a valid English word, without actually being a word itself. The first player to create a word loses.

<i>Bonnies Bookstore</i> 2005 video game

Bonnie's Bookstore is a word-forming puzzle video game developed by New Crayon Games and published by PopCap Games. On each level, tiles containing one letters are arranged in a specific structure. As in the similar title Bookworm, players use adjacent letters to form valid words, with points being awarded based on the length of the word. In most cases, once a letter is used, it is removed from the board, with existing letters moving downwards and new letters filling in from the top.

Family Game Night is an American television game show based on Hasbro's family of board games and EA's video game franchise of the same name. The show was hosted by Todd Newton. Burton Richardson was the announcer for the first two seasons; he was replaced by Stacey J. Aswad in the third season, and Andrew Kishino was hired for the fourth season. The 60-minute program debuted on October 10, 2010, on The Hub ; it was previewed on October 9, 2010, on its sister channel, TLC. Seasons 1 and 2 contained 26 and 30 episodes respectively. Seasons 3, 4 and 5 each contained 15 episodes. Season 2 premiered on Friday, September 2, 2011, with additional games being added. The games added to the second season included Cranium Brain Breaks, Green Scream, Ratuki Go-Round, Simon Flash, Operation Sam Dunk, Trouble Pop Quiz, and Spelling Bee. However games from the previous season were still kept.

<i>Scrabble Showdown</i> American TV series or program

Scrabble Showdown is an American game show created for the American cable network The Hub. The program was based on the board game Scrabble and was hosted by Justin Willman. It ran from September 3, 2011, to April 15, 2012.

<i>Tug of Words</i> American game show

Tug of Words is an American television game show that premiered on Game Show Network on November 8, 2021.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Wise, Debra; Sandra Forrest (2003). Great big book of children's games: over 450 indoor and outdoor games for kids. McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN   0-07-142246-3.
  2. ↑ Wood, Clemend; Gloria Goddard (1940). The complete book of games (2 ed.). Garden City.
  3. ↑ "How to Play the Name Game!". The Van Gogh-Goghs. 1999. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  4. ↑ Cullen, Ruth (2004). Brainiac's Gross-Out Activity Book. Activity Journal Series. Peter Pauper Press. ISBN   0-88088-448-7.
  5. 1 2 Rosenthal, Aaron. "Are We There Yet?". Street Directory. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
  6. ↑ Sperling, Dave. "w-o-r-d c-h-a-i-n". Dave's ESL Cafe. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
  7. ↑ Hill, Monica (2005). "Fun Vocabulary Learning Activities". Harsh words: English words for Chinese learners . Hong Kong University Press. p.  138. ISBN   962-209-717-0.
  8. ↑ Cap Verses (To)., Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Brewer, 1898
  9. ↑ Brewer, E. Cobham (1898). "Cap Verses (To).". Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.