Thoughts on the word list Word games
4 replies. Last post: 2004-10-20
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4 replies. Last post: 2004-10-20
Reply to this topic Return to forumIt would be nice if:
The rules for GWG made it clearer what word list is used
The specified list did not include archaic Scots dialect
The specified word list was not a hard-to-find alternative version of a commonly-used list
This site gave a link to where the specified list can actually be found
I guess it would be wrong to deal with 3 as that would involve changing the rules of the game. But the other three points could be fixed by making a copy of the list available somewhere and giving a clear link to it.
Regarding point 2: the list includes really weird words from all kinds of backgrounds and languages, e.g. words derived from Dutch like 'aasvogel' and 'waterzooi' where I can't even guess how they entered the English language. I don't think cleaning it up would add much to the game.
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary knows both words, so they aren't that strange. Here's their entry on waterzooi:
Main Entry: wa·ter·zooi
Pronunciation: 'vä-t&r-“zoi
Function: noun
Etymology: Flemish, from water water + zooi quantity of cooked food: a stew of fish or chicken and vegetables in a seasoned stock thickened with cream and egg yolks
Their entry on aasvogel is only available for subscribers.
I think the version of the ENABLE list used here is the one you can find at http://personal.riverusers.com/~thegrendel/software.html under the name “Updated millennial edition of ENABLE”. It has 173,528 words, and does not include any one-letter words. If you add all 26 one-letter strings (which are accepted for GWG) you get 173,554 “words”.