Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics

Word Ways
The Journal of Recreational Linguistics · published quarterly since 1968

Word Game Guides

Strategy, word lists and wordplay — written by people who take play seriously

S L A T E C R A N E PICK YOUR OPENER ONCE
Wordle

The Best Wordle Starting Words, Ranked

Why SLATE and CRANE keep winning the simulations, when four-vowel openers make sense, and the two-guess system strong players never deviate from.

NP Nora Pemberly · 7 min read
Q10 I1 Z10 A1 X8 U1 SMALL WORDS, BIG SCORES
Word Lists

Every Two-Letter Word, Explained

The complete legal list for Scrabble and Words With Friends, what QI, XU and ZA actually mean, and the parallel-play trick that makes the twos worth forty points.

NP Nora Pemberly · 8 min read
the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog ABCDEFGHIJKLM NOPQRSTUVWXYZ EVERY LETTER, ONE SENTENCE
Wordplay

Pangrams: Every Letter in One Sentence

The story of the quick brown fox, the near-impossible perfect pangrams, what the word means in Spelling Bee — and how to build one of your own.

NP Nora Pemberly · 7 min read
The Word For What We Do
logology
/ləˈɡɒlədʒi/ · noun · revived 1965

An old word that Dmitri Borgmann pulled back into service for the recreational study of language. He founded this magazine in 1968 at the suggestion of Martin Gardner, and it has been the field's home publication ever since.

The Complete Guide

W O R D G A M E S G U E S S THE COMPLETE GUIDE Start Here Word Games: The Complete Guide to Every Kind (and How to Get Better at Them) Crosswords, Wordle, anagram games and clue games in one map — with the word lists worth memorising and the further reading the regulars rely on. NP Nora Pemberly · 14 min read