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Trivia hunt: Double your letters, double your fun
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Dan Tilque
Oct 5, 2013, 5:11:11 AM10/5/13
to
I'm not sure how well this is going to work, but I had an idea for a
somewhat different kind of contest than the usual ones we have. So this
is going to be a test.
OBJECT: For each letter of the alphabet, think of the alphabetically
first word that has that letter doubled. That is, the first word with a
double A, the first with a double B, etc. Well, except that we'll skip
J, Q, X, and Y since there are very few words with those letters
doubled. (In fact, the only acceptable words I know of for Q and X are
found in the OED.)
ALLOWED WORDS: Only those that would be acceptable in Scrabble are
allowed. That means no capitalized words and none with punctuation or
internal spaces. Words must be found in an English-language dictionary
other than the OED.
Inflected word forms count the same as their uninflected forms unless
only the inflected form has the doubled letter.
Contest will run until 9:00 p.m. (UTC +7), Saturday, Oct 12 (one week
from today). I'll post a reminder on Friday.
For convenience in scoring, delete all this introductory text, fill in
the following table, and either email or (preferably) post your entry.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
U
V
W
Z
SCORING: The best word for each letter scores 5, second best word scores
3 and third best 1. It doesn't matter how many people get each of the
words. Everyone getting the best word gets 5, etc.
Final note: This is a contest, so you are not allowed to use reference
materials such as looking words up in the dictionary or googling.
Grepping on a word list is also right out. And, of course, do not view
others' answers before posting your entry.
--
Dan Tilque
somewhat different kind of contest than the usual ones we have. So this
is going to be a test.
OBJECT: For each letter of the alphabet, think of the alphabetically
first word that has that letter doubled. That is, the first word with a
double A, the first with a double B, etc. Well, except that we'll skip
J, Q, X, and Y since there are very few words with those letters
doubled. (In fact, the only acceptable words I know of for Q and X are
found in the OED.)
ALLOWED WORDS: Only those that would be acceptable in Scrabble are
allowed. That means no capitalized words and none with punctuation or
internal spaces. Words must be found in an English-language dictionary
other than the OED.
Inflected word forms count the same as their uninflected forms unless
only the inflected form has the doubled letter.
Contest will run until 9:00 p.m. (UTC +7), Saturday, Oct 12 (one week
from today). I'll post a reminder on Friday.
For convenience in scoring, delete all this introductory text, fill in
the following table, and either email or (preferably) post your entry.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
U
V
W
Z
SCORING: The best word for each letter scores 5, second best word scores
3 and third best 1. It doesn't matter how many people get each of the
words. Everyone getting the best word gets 5, etc.
Final note: This is a contest, so you are not allowed to use reference
materials such as looking words up in the dictionary or googling.
Grepping on a word list is also right out. And, of course, do not view
others' answers before posting your entry.
--
Dan Tilque
Mark Brader
Oct 5, 2013, 1:22:18 PM10/5/13
to
A aa
B abbacy
C accapella
D add
E alee
F affable
G bagged
H fishhook
I aalii
K bakkala
L accapella
M anagrammed
N banned
O afoot
P apparent
R arrant
S amass
T abattoir
U continuum
V bivvy
W bowward
Z dazzle
--
Mark Brader | "... there is no such word as 'impossible' in
Toronto | my dictionary. In fact, everything between
m...@vex.net | 'herring' and 'marmalade' appears to be missing."
| -- Dirk Gently (Douglas Adams)
B abbacy
C accapella
D add
E alee
F affable
G bagged
H fishhook
I aalii
K bakkala
L accapella
M anagrammed
N banned
O afoot
P apparent
R arrant
S amass
T abattoir
U continuum
V bivvy
W bowward
Z dazzle
--
Mark Brader | "... there is no such word as 'impossible' in
Toronto | my dictionary. In fact, everything between
m...@vex.net | 'herring' and 'marmalade' appears to be missing."
| -- Dirk Gently (Douglas Adams)
Marc Dashevsky
Oct 5, 2013, 1:31:16 PM10/5/13
to
In article <l2ol4m$kqb$1...@dont-email.me>, dti...@frontier.com says...
> A aa
> B abbess
> C accede
> D add
> E addressee
> F affair
> G aggregate
> H fishhook
> I radii
> K bookkeeper
> L actually
> M accommodate
> N annal
> O afternoon
> P appall
> R arrange
> S abscess
> T abutter
> U vacuum
> V savvy
> W powwow
> Z abuzz
> A aa
> B abbess
> C accede
> D add
> E addressee
> F affair
> G aggregate
> H fishhook
> I radii
> K bookkeeper
> L actually
> M accommodate
> N annal
> O afternoon
> P appall
> R arrange
> S abscess
> T abutter
> U vacuum
> V savvy
> W powwow
> Z abuzz
swp
Oct 5, 2013, 2:15:57 PM10/5/13
to
On Saturday, October 5, 2013 5:11:11 AM UTC-4, Dan Tilque wrote:
> OBJECT: For each letter of the alphabet, think of the alphabetically
> first word that has that letter doubled. That is, the first word with a
> double A, the first with a double B, etc. Well, except that we'll skip
> J, Q, X, and Y since there are very few words with those letters
> doubled. (In fact, the only acceptable words I know of for Q and X are
> found in the OED.)
a aa
> OBJECT: For each letter of the alphabet, think of the alphabetically
> first word that has that letter doubled. That is, the first word with a
> double A, the first with a double B, etc. Well, except that we'll skip
> J, Q, X, and Y since there are very few words with those letters
> doubled. (In fact, the only acceptable words I know of for Q and X are
> found in the OED.)
b abba
c accapella
d add
e abductee
f affabilities
g abegging
h bathhouse (unless 'aarrghh' is a word in some dictionary)
i allii
j hajj
k bookkeeper
l abolla
m accommodate
n alienness
o abloom
p airdropped
q ...
r aberrance
s abbess
t abattis
u continuum
v chivvied
w arrowwood
x ...
y sayyid
z abuzz
I don't know of any with a double q or double xx that are not proper nouns.
swp
Curlytop
Oct 5, 2013, 2:48:02 PM10/5/13
to
> A aardvark
> B bubble
> C access
> D addled
> E beer
> F effort
> G haggle
> H bathhouse
> I skiing
Dulhejjia (last month of the Muslim calendar)
> K bookkeeper
> L ball
> M clammy
> N banner
> O foot
> P tapper
> R carrot
> S hiss
> T butter
> U vacuum
> V bovver
> W bowwow
> Z buzzer
--
ξ: ) Proud to be curly
Interchange the alphabetic letter groups to reply
> B bubble
> C access
> D addled
> E beer
> F effort
> G haggle
> H bathhouse
> I skiing
Dulhejjia (last month of the Muslim calendar)
> K bookkeeper
> L ball
> M clammy
> N banner
> O foot
> P tapper
> R carrot
> S hiss
> T butter
> U vacuum
> V bovver
> W bowwow
> Z buzzer
--
ξ: ) Proud to be curly
Interchange the alphabetic letter groups to reply
Chris F.A. Johnson
Oct 5, 2013, 4:00:38 PM10/5/13
to
> A aa
> B abbey
> C accommodate
> D address
> E abandonee
> F affable
> G agglomerate
> H bathhouse
> I aalii
> K bookkeeper
> L all
> M ammeter
> N annal
> O adulthood
> P appal
> R arrant
> S assail
> T attainder
> U continuum
> V bevvy
> W arrowwood
> Z abuzz
--
Chris F.A. Johnson
> B abbey
> C accommodate
> D address
> E abandonee
> F affable
> G agglomerate
> H bathhouse
> I aalii
> K bookkeeper
> L all
> M ammeter
> N annal
> O adulthood
> P appal
> R arrant
> S assail
> T attainder
> U continuum
> V bevvy
> W arrowwood
> Z abuzz
--
Chris F.A. Johnson
Dan Tilque
Oct 11, 2013, 5:37:24 AM10/11/13
to
This is the final and only reminder for this contest. There's about a
day and a half left to submit entries.
One point of clarification on the scoring. The "best word" is the best
word submitted by any of the contestants. What the best word is in any
of the numerous dictionaries out there is irrelevant; only words
submitted count.
Who needs TV when you can have the whole Internet insulting your
intelligence? -- Ziggy
day and a half left to submit entries.
One point of clarification on the scoring. The "best word" is the best
word submitted by any of the contestants. What the best word is in any
of the numerous dictionaries out there is irrelevant; only words
submitted count.
intelligence? -- Ziggy
Dan Tilque
Oct 13, 2013, 7:40:27 AM10/13/13
to
There were seven participants in this contest (two only replied in
rec.puzzles), which was less than I'd hoped for, but as I said, this was
a bit of an experiment.
Dan Tilque wrote:
>
> OBJECT: For each letter of the alphabet, think of the alphabetically
> first word that has that letter doubled. That is, the first word with a
> double A, the first with a double B, etc. Well, except that we'll skip
> J, Q, X, and Y since there are very few words with those letters
> doubled. (In fact, the only acceptable words I know of for Q and X are
> found in the OED.)
>
> ALLOWED WORDS: Only those that would be acceptable in Scrabble are
> allowed. That means no capitalized words and none with punctuation or
> internal spaces. Words must be found in an English-language dictionary
> other than the OED.
One contestant missed the Scrabble-legal requirement and gave two
answers with hyphens. I counted one of those wrong, but the other word
is virtually always written without a hyphen, so I was lenient and
considered it a mispelling.
>
> Inflected word forms count the same as their uninflected forms unless
> only the inflected form has the doubled letter.
After seeing the answers, I also decided that variant spellings count
the same as each other.
For misspellings, I did my best to discern what word was meant and
assume that was what was posted. Of course, sometimes the correct
spelling was not a valid answer.
>
> Contest will run until 9:00 p.m. (UTC +7), Saturday, Oct 12 (one week
> from today). I'll post a reminder on Friday.
>
>
A aa aardvark
B abb abba abbacy
C accede access accommodate
D add addled address
E abandonee abductee absentee
F affability affable affair
G abegging agglomerate aggravate
H bathhouse fishhook withhold
I aalii radii skiing
K bookkeeper trekked
L abnormally abolla achillea
M accommodate ammeter anagrammed
N alienness amenning anna
O abloom adulthood afoot
P airdropped appal(l) apparent
R aberrance aberrant arrange
S abbess abscess amass
T abattis abattoir abutter
U continuum duuvir vaccuum
V bevvy bivvy bovver
W arrowwood bowwow powwow
Z abuzz buzzer dazzle
WRONG ANSWERS
accapella -- a cappella
akkadian -- capitalized
anti-inflamatory -- punctuation
avvogadro -- Avogadro
bakkala -- not found in dictionaries
bowward -- not found in dictionaries
One other wrong answer was ashheap. I could only find this word in one
dictionary (Chambers) where it was hyphenated: ash-heap. Unfortunate.
SCORES
And here's the scores (sorry about the compression, but it was the only
way to get all of them on one line).
ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPRSTUVWZ Total
Stephen Perry 5305355555355555555055 94
Andrew B 5555151133151133033535 67
Chris Johnson 5011533555030330005555 62
rthe...@hotmail.com 5155133000553133033015 55
Marc Dashevsky 5055010335050031311015 47
Mark Brader 5105030350010110135301 38
Curlytop 3033000515000000001133 28
Stephen is the winner by quite a bit. Congratulations! (I think he may
have swallowed a word list once.)
Notes and observations:
I was boggled by a few answers. For D, some gave words beginning with
"add-", missing the obvious. There was a couple cases of words given for
one letter which would also have been a better answer than they gave for
another letter.
When I first came up with this idea, I thought I'd restrict it to only
words from one dictionary: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate, which is the
same as their online dictionary. I changed my mind, but not before
compiling a list of best answers from it. You may be interested in that
list:
A aah
B abbacy
C accede
D add
E abductee
F affability
G aggie
H bathhouse
I alibiing
K bookkeeper
L abdominally
M accommodate
N alienness
O abloom
P app
R aberrance
S abbess
T abattoir
U continuum
V chivvy
W arrowwood
Z abuzz
Finally, I made up a list with words taken from any dictionary I could
find, except for the OED. I didn't look through any entire dictionary,
of course. Usually just the first couple dozen or so pages. I also
grepped some word lists and looked those results up as well. Mark Brader
gets credit for gepping a word list I didn't have access to and found a
few words from Webster's Third that I didn't have. Finally, this webpage
was useful for some of the rarer doubled letters:
http://jeff560.tripod.com/words7.html
However, you can't just take any word from that page as valid. Many are
invalid because they are capitalized and some I couldn't find in any
dictionary (aarrghh and arghhood, for example).
A aa [W3]
B abb [W2]
C acca [W3]
D add
E abandonee [W3]
F abaff [W2]
G abegging [RH]
H archhead [W2]
I aalii [W3]
J avijja [W3]
K angekkok [W2]
L abactinally [W3]
M accommodable [W3]
N aannerodite [F&W]
O abloom
P airdropped [RH]
Q zaqqum [W2]
R aberrance
S abaisse [W3]
T abattage [RH]
U ahuula [W3]
V bevvy [Cham]
W arrowweed [W3]
Y cavyyard [W3]
Z abbozzo [W3]
As far as I can tell, there are no Scrabble-legal words with double X
except "waxxenn", a very old spelling of wax (verb) found in the OED.
Thanks to everyone who played.
--
Dan Tilque
rec.puzzles), which was less than I'd hoped for, but as I said, this was
a bit of an experiment.
Dan Tilque wrote:
>
> OBJECT: For each letter of the alphabet, think of the alphabetically
> first word that has that letter doubled. That is, the first word with a
> double A, the first with a double B, etc. Well, except that we'll skip
> J, Q, X, and Y since there are very few words with those letters
> doubled. (In fact, the only acceptable words I know of for Q and X are
> found in the OED.)
>
> ALLOWED WORDS: Only those that would be acceptable in Scrabble are
> allowed. That means no capitalized words and none with punctuation or
> internal spaces. Words must be found in an English-language dictionary
> other than the OED.
answers with hyphens. I counted one of those wrong, but the other word
is virtually always written without a hyphen, so I was lenient and
considered it a mispelling.
>
> Inflected word forms count the same as their uninflected forms unless
> only the inflected form has the doubled letter.
the same as each other.
For misspellings, I did my best to discern what word was meant and
assume that was what was posted. Of course, sometimes the correct
spelling was not a valid answer.
>
> Contest will run until 9:00 p.m. (UTC +7), Saturday, Oct 12 (one week
> from today). I'll post a reminder on Friday.
>
>
> SCORING: The best word for each letter scores 5, second best word scores
> 3 and third best 1. It doesn't matter how many people get each of the
> words. Everyone getting the best word gets 5, etc.
Here's a list of the three best answers for each letter:
> 3 and third best 1. It doesn't matter how many people get each of the
> words. Everyone getting the best word gets 5, etc.
A aa aardvark
B abb abba abbacy
C accede access accommodate
D add addled address
E abandonee abductee absentee
F affability affable affair
G abegging agglomerate aggravate
H bathhouse fishhook withhold
I aalii radii skiing
K bookkeeper trekked
L abnormally abolla achillea
M accommodate ammeter anagrammed
N alienness amenning anna
O abloom adulthood afoot
P airdropped appal(l) apparent
R aberrance aberrant arrange
S abbess abscess amass
T abattis abattoir abutter
U continuum duuvir vaccuum
V bevvy bivvy bovver
W arrowwood bowwow powwow
Z abuzz buzzer dazzle
WRONG ANSWERS
accapella -- a cappella
akkadian -- capitalized
anti-inflamatory -- punctuation
avvogadro -- Avogadro
bakkala -- not found in dictionaries
bowward -- not found in dictionaries
One other wrong answer was ashheap. I could only find this word in one
dictionary (Chambers) where it was hyphenated: ash-heap. Unfortunate.
SCORES
And here's the scores (sorry about the compression, but it was the only
way to get all of them on one line).
ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPRSTUVWZ Total
Stephen Perry 5305355555355555555055 94
Andrew B 5555151133151133033535 67
Chris Johnson 5011533555030330005555 62
rthe...@hotmail.com 5155133000553133033015 55
Marc Dashevsky 5055010335050031311015 47
Mark Brader 5105030350010110135301 38
Curlytop 3033000515000000001133 28
Stephen is the winner by quite a bit. Congratulations! (I think he may
have swallowed a word list once.)
Notes and observations:
I was boggled by a few answers. For D, some gave words beginning with
"add-", missing the obvious. There was a couple cases of words given for
one letter which would also have been a better answer than they gave for
another letter.
When I first came up with this idea, I thought I'd restrict it to only
words from one dictionary: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate, which is the
same as their online dictionary. I changed my mind, but not before
compiling a list of best answers from it. You may be interested in that
list:
A aah
B abbacy
C accede
D add
E abductee
F affability
G aggie
H bathhouse
I alibiing
K bookkeeper
L abdominally
M accommodate
N alienness
O abloom
P app
R aberrance
S abbess
T abattoir
U continuum
V chivvy
W arrowwood
Z abuzz
Finally, I made up a list with words taken from any dictionary I could
find, except for the OED. I didn't look through any entire dictionary,
of course. Usually just the first couple dozen or so pages. I also
grepped some word lists and looked those results up as well. Mark Brader
gets credit for gepping a word list I didn't have access to and found a
few words from Webster's Third that I didn't have. Finally, this webpage
was useful for some of the rarer doubled letters:
http://jeff560.tripod.com/words7.html
However, you can't just take any word from that page as valid. Many are
invalid because they are capitalized and some I couldn't find in any
dictionary (aarrghh and arghhood, for example).
A aa [W3]
B abb [W2]
C acca [W3]
D add
E abandonee [W3]
F abaff [W2]
G abegging [RH]
H archhead [W2]
I aalii [W3]
J avijja [W3]
K angekkok [W2]
L abactinally [W3]
M accommodable [W3]
N aannerodite [F&W]
O abloom
P airdropped [RH]
Q zaqqum [W2]
R aberrance
S abaisse [W3]
T abattage [RH]
U ahuula [W3]
V bevvy [Cham]
W arrowweed [W3]
Y cavyyard [W3]
Z abbozzo [W3]
As far as I can tell, there are no Scrabble-legal words with double X
except "waxxenn", a very old spelling of wax (verb) found in the OED.
Thanks to everyone who played.
--
Dan Tilque
Andrew B
Oct 13, 2013, 8:26:06 AM10/13/13
to
On 13/10/2013 12:40, Dan Tilque wrote:
> SCORES
>
> And here's the scores (sorry about the compression, but it was the only
> way to get all of them on one line).
>
> ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPRSTUVWZ Total
> Stephen Perry 5305355555355555555055 94
> Andrew B 5555151133151133033535 67
> Chris Johnson 5011533555030330005555 62
> rthe...@hotmail.com 5155133000553133033015 55
> Marc Dashevsky 5055010335050031311015 47
> Mark Brader 5105030350010110135301 38
> Curlytop 3033000515000000001133 28
>
> Stephen is the winner by quite a bit. Congratulations! (I think he may
> have swallowed a word list once.)
I think I should have had points for "abbess", which doesn't change the
> SCORES
>
> And here's the scores (sorry about the compression, but it was the only
> way to get all of them on one line).
>
> ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPRSTUVWZ Total
> Stephen Perry 5305355555355555555055 94
> Andrew B 5555151133151133033535 67
> Chris Johnson 5011533555030330005555 62
> rthe...@hotmail.com 5155133000553133033015 55
> Marc Dashevsky 5055010335050031311015 47
> Mark Brader 5105030350010110135301 38
> Curlytop 3033000515000000001133 28
>
> Stephen is the winner by quite a bit. Congratulations! (I think he may
> have swallowed a word list once.)
order (but would mean I scored points for every letter).
Thanks for a fun puzzle!
Dan Tilque
Oct 14, 2013, 6:20:22 AM10/14/13
to
Andrew B wrote:
> On 13/10/2013 12:40, Dan Tilque wrote:
>
>> SCORES
>>
>> And here's the scores (sorry about the compression, but it was the only
>> way to get all of them on one line).
>>
>> ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPRSTUVWZ Total
>> Stephen Perry 5305355555355555555055 94
>> Andrew B 5555151133151133033535 67
>> Chris Johnson 5011533555030330005555 62
>> rthe...@hotmail.com 5155133000553133033015 55
>> Marc Dashevsky 5055010335050031311015 47
>> Mark Brader 5105030350010110135301 38
>> Curlytop 3033000515000000001133 28
>>
>
> On 13/10/2013 12:40, Dan Tilque wrote:
>
>> SCORES
>>
>> And here's the scores (sorry about the compression, but it was the only
>> way to get all of them on one line).
>>
>> ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPRSTUVWZ Total
>> Stephen Perry 5305355555355555555055 94
>> Andrew B 5555151133151133033535 67
>> Chris Johnson 5011533555030330005555 62
>> rthe...@hotmail.com 5155133000553133033015 55
>> Marc Dashevsky 5055010335050031311015 47
>> Mark Brader 5105030350010110135301 38
>> Curlytop 3033000515000000001133 28
>>
>
> I think I should have had points for "abbess", which doesn't change the
> order (but would mean I scored points for every letter).
Oops! You certainly should have. And that was quite an accomplishment, too.
> order (but would mean I scored points for every letter).
Revised scoring:
ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPRSTUVWZ
Stephen Perry 5305355555355555555055 94
Andrew B 5555151133151133533535 72
Chris Johnson 5011533555030330005555 62
rthe...@hotmail.com 5155133000553133033015 55
Marc Dashevsky 5055010335050031311015 47
Mark Brader 5105030350010110135301 38
Curlytop 3033000515000000001133 28
>
rthe...@hotmail.com 5155133000553133033015 55
Marc Dashevsky 5055010335050031311015 47
Mark Brader 5105030350010110135301 38
Curlytop 3033000515000000001133 28
>
> Thanks for a fun puzzle!
Thanks for participating. I'll see if I can't come up with another
Trivia Hunt type puzzle. Something that draws a bit more interest.
--
Dan Tilque
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