Reader Friday: Word Games

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Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play. —Mike Singletary

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There seems to be some evidence that playing word games is good for your brain. Some people say it’s like a workout for your little gray cells. According to Dr. Oriana Cornett of St. Joseph’s Health

Incorporating puzzles and word games into your daily routine can be a game-changer for your brain health. These activities are more than just entertaining; they’re tools for maintaining and enhancing cognitive function and boosting mental acuity in a variety of ways.

Some of the areas of benefit she lists are

  • Improved Problem-Solving Skills
  • Language and Vocabulary Growth
  • Mental Agility

That’s great news for readers and writers (and for everybody else.) But whether word games improve brain function or not, they’re fun to play. Some I like are

  • Crossword puzzles
  • Wordle
  • Spelling Bee
  • Scrabble

I also have a few apps on my phone that are fun to play whenever I take a minute or two to relax. These include

  • 7 Little Words
  • Elevate
  • Wordbrain

 

So TKZers: Do you play word games? Do you think word games are good for brain health? What are some of your favorites?

 

29 thoughts on “Reader Friday: Word Games”

  1. This is something I’ve wanted to look into. Other than word search puzzles, I haven’t really tried any of the other things.

    • Good morning, Brenda!

      I think all word games are helpful. One nice thing is you can find crosswords in different levels of difficulty so you don’t have to jump into the deep end of the pool at once.

      Have a wonderful weekend.

  2. Do you play word games?
    I do! I play the Wordle puzzle every day. I’ve got about 14 two-liners, too many three-liners to keep track of. I’ve rarely gone to five lines and have only lost two or three games.

    Do you think word games are good for brain health?
    Yes. I suspect brainstorming sessions may be even better. My Guardienne Theory✽ states that we have another entity, fast, autonomous and sentient, in our limbic region. It is the protective center of the brain and also the creative engine, the source of dreams. It pays to keep your Guardienne too busy to make trouble. It has no conscience.

    What are some of your favorites?
    As I drive, I read the three letters on the license plate on the car in front of me and create a word out of them, maintaining their order. E.g., QRO could be used to create “querulous.”
    Can you make a word containing JTK? See below for answer.✽✽ I used to play Scrabble a lot. Not so much lately. Another good exercise is cryptic crosswords. I usually do these in British magazines, which adds another dimension of challenge. There’s a science to solving them that this margin is too narrow to contain.

    ✽ explained in my book, Why Alcoholics Relapse: The Guardienne Concept. Read it free, if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription.
    ✽✽ JoysTicK. Can you think of another JTK word with only 7 letters?

  4. Does Wheel of Fortune count? Most of the time I guess the puzzle before the contestants do. I should try out for the show–would probably make more $$ than being a writer, at least for one evening. 😉

    • Yes! Wheel of Fortune is another type of word game that gives your brain a workout.

      You need to try out for the show. Definitely more lucrative than writing. (But not nearly as satisfying.)

      Have a good weekend.

  5. One of my crit partners and I share our NYT Mini Cross, Connections, and Strands results every morning. Later in the day, we share Wordle and Phrazle (thanks for that one, JSB!)
    I used to love anacrostics. Haven’t done those in years. Also simple decoding ciphers.

    • I like the NYT Mini Cross. I feel good if I solve it in less than a minute. Connections takes somewhat longer. 🙂

      I love creating ciphers for my books.

    • Good morning, John.

      Oh no! I hate that they won’t let you miss a day. Silly rule.

      I was an occasional Wordle player until I noticed the streak challenge and decided to see how long I could keep it going, so now I play it every day. On one hand, it irks me that I’m responding to that silly bot challenge, but it was pretty clever of NYT as a way to get people to play every day. (I’m on a 177-day streak now.)

  7. Yep! I have a crossword game on my phone and my Kindle for downtime and when I’m waiting, like in a doctor’s office.

    And when the girlies visit mom, we break out my Scrabble game extraordinaire–it’s on a turntable and is very fancy-schmancy. (The girlies argue over who gets it when I’m gone. 🙂 )

    Have a great day!

    • Morning, Deb.

      Word games are such a good way to give your brain a little workout while sitting in a waiting room.

      Your scrabble set sounds impressive! We also have a game called UpWords. It’s a scrabble-like game where you can change words that have already been played and get points.

  8. Good morning, Kay! I used to play Words with Friends, but eventually tired of that and haven’t replaced it. There’s some excellent alternatives here and I’m going to pick one and start playing it. My brain could use a word workout.

    I’ve been playing a card game (works best with four or more) called Quiddler, which is Scrabble-esque and fun.

    • Good morning, Dale.

      I’ve never heard of Quiddler, but it sounds like fun. We’ll have to give it a try.

      There are so many great word games, and some of them only take a minute or two to play, so it doesn’t really interrupt your day.

      Happy Wording!

  9. Yep. I play NYT’s Spelling Bee every morning (at bottom of their “Morning” post). My AM routine along with coffee and yoghurt/bananas/nuts mini-breakfast. I get the Pangram sometimes.

    JKT? > Jacket (my immediate guess)

  10. Ditto on Wordscapes (I won’t discuss what game number I’m on, let’s just say well into five figures…) and I love 7 Little Words, Red Herring, and the daily Wordle. Also Cody Cross, despite the annoying animation time eaters, because I like the changing settings, and sometimes I actually learn something. Like that old writing quills weren’t just any bird feather, but usually wing feathers, and only the five outermost because they’re generally the strongest. And that the left wing ones were better suited to right-handed writers. Which right there tells you the weird things that stick in a writer’s mind!

  11. I’ll admit to liking games whether they are words, numbers, or solving block puzzles, etc. I like the games that give me letters and have me make words. My current favorite is Word Solitaire. You have to clear the board and the longer the word, the more points you get. My next favorite is Puzzle page with all sorts of different games on it.

    I’ve done crosswords and word games like Scrabble from the time I learned to spell and will probably continue doing them until I’m too old to care. I find that puzzles do make your mind more active.

  12. I play WordBrain and sometimes a crossword puzzle and always Wheel of Fortune. I used to do the cryptograms in our daily paper that I still take but they dropped that feature. Most of the time, though, if I’m stuck in a doctors office, I’ll read whatever book I have going.

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