Word Brain Teasers

Exercises tone up the body. They keep it fit and sturdy. But what about the brain? Exercises for the brain are extremely necessary as well, to keep it as fit as the body. Like a rolling stone, a brain that is constantly ‘rolling’ won’t gather any ‘moss’. There are a thousand and one exercises for the body; but for the brain, there are only a few teasers. Yes, teasers are the best form of exercise for the brain. Playing these brain teasers regularly helps develop the left brain and develops our lateral thinking. Brain teasers are very interesting and addictive, keeping the brain sharp and in top order. Unlike physical exercises, they don’t require any investment, as most of them regularly appear in the daily newspaper. Out of the various number of brain teasers, the ones involving the uses of words are perhaps the most popular. Over a period of time, word brain teasers give you a rich vocabulary and hence, a proficiency in the language. Given below are some of the most popular word brain teasers that you can adopt to exercise your brains.

 

Simply put, anagrams consist of rearranging letters to form a word. The original word acts as the clue for the new one. The rules are the same as in case of a normal crossword, but the clues here are in the form of jumbled words. All the letters of the clue must be arranged in such a way that they form a word that bears a relation to the clue.

 

Crossword

Crossword puzzle is a black and white square grid and it is one of the most common brain teasers. The squares must be filled with words derived from the clues that are provided.

 

Word Polygon

Word polygon is a shape with 7 to 9 letters. The player must create as many words as possible, using each of the letters only once. Sometimes, it also includes one letter that must be included mandatorily in each word. The minimum length of the words must be 3 to 4 letters.

 

Jotto

This game is logic-oriented and is played between two players. The players pick a five-letter word consisting of different letters and it is kept a secret. No proper nouns are allowed. The game consists of guessing the other players word and the player who guesses the word first is the winner. When the player makes a guess then the opposite player gives the number of letters that are both in the guessed and the secret words. By logical deductions and crossing out the letters, the secret word is guessed.

 

Fictionary

In this word game, the players guess the definition of an obscure word. A word is picked by a player from a dictionary and the other players make a fake definition of the word. Points are awarded to the players for guessing the correct definition of the word or by composing a fake definition that the others think is correct or selecting a word that no other players can give a meaning for.

 

Categories

This word game is played with the players thinking of five initial letters and five categories. These are then arranged in a row and column of a 5X5 grid, which the players must fill in five minutes. Using the initial letters, the players must put the words that have been specified by the categories.