If you want to play word games online, type “fun with words” and you spend half an hour or more digging through an overwhelming amount of sites.
You’ll also be overwhelmed with ads, sign-ups to play games, and so on. Some ads are expected on a website (like this one), but not as many as on this word games site.
The ads on most of the sites I came across were so annoying that I kept leaving. I continued my journey through Google and then I found Fun With Words. So what makes this site different?
Fun With Words is less about games and more about ways to have fun with language. This site is full of interesting information about language, unlike game sites.
Interesting Facts on the Site
Oh, where to start? This site contains so much interesting information related to wordplay. Five hundred pages worth, according to the site. Starting alphabetically seems as good a strategy as any.
Anagrams—the site not only explains anagrams, but also lists different types, such as names, long and short anagrams, and rude ones. The history of anagrams can be traced back to a Greek poet, Lycophron, who wrote in the 4th century BC, or even earlier, to Pythagoros. The Romans and early Christians felt that anagrams had mystical properties.
Malapropisms. Accidentally substituting one word for another is a malapropism, the name of a character in The Rivals, a play by Richard Sheridan. Malapropisms, or slips of the tongue, are categorized into malapropisms based on ignorance (a person thinking they are smarter than they are) and those that are a slip of the tongue.
In The Rivals the character Mrs. Malaprop says, “behold, this very day, I have interceded another letter from the fellow” when she means intercepted. Mrs. Malaprop thinks interceded is a fancy word only educated people use. That might be true, but it doesn’t mean what she thinks it does.
Slips of the tongue are accidental switches of words. Someone who says “The flooding was so bad they had to evaporate the city” confused evaporate with evacuate, possibly because both flooding and evaporation are related to moisture.
Mondegreens. Related to malapropisms, mondegreens means hearing the wrong word. Song lyrics are a common source of mondegreens. Paul Simon sang “Mama, don’t throw my Kodachrome away,” not “Mama, don’t throw my clothes away.”
Oxymorons. If you need a quick reminder of its definition (which I did), oxymorons are two words put together that are contradictions. Jumbo shrimp and pretty ugly are two. Or, as Theseus says in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
“Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!
That is hot ice and wondorous strange snow.”
Palindromes. One of our favorite topics is palindromes. We have a post on different types of palindromes and another on how to write palindromic sentences. But we don’t have a post on 2D Palindrome Squares.
Pangrams. Trying to write sentences that use every letter of the alphabet is not easy. The site’s section on panagrams includes a section on their history, how Lorem Ipsum fits into the panagram category, and reader submissions. What do you think about this sentence? Cheating or brilliant?
“B, C, F, G, H, I, J, K, M, O, P, Q, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z are letters.”
Spoonerisms. Instead of slips of substituting words, spoonerisms occur when a speaker swaps letters or syllables.
So don’t tell me “a lack of pies,” (pack of lies)
“tease my ears” if I’m crying, (ease my tears) or
serve me “snail tracks.” (trail snacks)
Tom Swifties. To create a Swiftie, you need to have a pun Tom speak, and the pun needs to be in how he speaks. For example,
“Oops, there goes my hat,” said Tom off the top of his head.
or
“The doctor had to remove my left ventricle,” said Tom half-heartedly.
There are many nuances to Tom Swifties, and the site explains them in the history section.
The site has more information, including Word Records, Nym Words, Redundancies, and Etymology.
Games on Fun With Words
If you are looking for a ton of word games, you will be disappointed with this site. I enjoyed the Hangman and Rebus puzzles, but I wish the site owners would devote some additional time to developing (or linking to) interesting games.
You can, however, see the first crossword puzzle, which was created in 1913.
Bottom Line
The copyright for the site is 1999-2023, and although it is kept current, it looks like a site designed in the early days of the internet. And that is part of its charm. If you’re looking to have fun with words, this site is worth a look, but if you want word games, this site probably doesn’t have what you are looking for.
Leave your favorite word game in the comments.
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