155 tricky four letter words (A-M)

Here are 155 tricky four letter words which you can test yourself on using Flash cards and other games at http://quizlet.com/_qnj3

They include words such as: MAKI (Japanese) a slice of a cold rice concoction, COWK (dial.) to retch, feel nauseated and HOHA (NZ) bored, annoyed. Enjoy.

3 letters no vowels

I've found a useful site which enables you to create your own sets of flash cards - which you can play various games with, as well as using it to learn the words. The site will remember which words you get right. I've created a set with three-letter SOWPODS Scrabble words containing only consonants.

There are 19 words to learn, plus their meanings, including such gems as myc, lym, wyn, tyg and many others.

Otarine plus one letter

Let's say you happen to pull out the most likely and fruitful handful of letters in Scrabble: AEINORT

You already have a bingo: OTARINE (like or pertaining to seals)

But if you add one letter you can also make the following acceptable words:

A aeration

B baritone, obtainer, reobtain, taborine

C actioner, anoretic, creation, reaction

D arointed, deration, ordinate, rationed

H antihero

L oriental, relation, taileron

N anointer, inornate, reanoint

P atropine

R anterior

S anoestri, arsonite, notaries, notarise, rosinate, senorita

T tentoria

Z notarize

Scrabble on the iphone

Scrabble has been implemented on the iphone - and it works really well. You can play against the computer (and choose the level of your opponent) or against a real opponent using Pass 'n Play. If they have an iphone, you can also play peer-to-peer using wi-fi.

To play, simply drag your chosen tiles onto the board, which automatically zooms in, pinch and drag to zoom in and out. Useful options include "Best Word" which will suggest the highest scoring word with the current rack. You can shake the iphone to shuffle the letters on your rack - or just tap the appropriate button.

Five letters beginning with X

Yesterday I was playing real scrabble, with actual tiles. After playing in the virtual world for so long, the tiles and the board seem BIG. Anyway I was faced with an 'X' tantalisingly hovering above the triple. Could I think of a five-letter or longer word starting with 'X'? No.

So here are the five letter ones:

XEBEC, XENIA, XENIC, XENON, XERIC, XEROX, XERUS, XOANA, XYLAN, XYLEM, XYLIC and XYLOL. Easy when you look them up. There are quite a few six-letter ones too.

By the way, Xenia is the way that pollen influences the formation of fruit as well as being the name of a harp player I know in Norwich. And Xoana are images of gods which have fallen from heaven (see above).

Frequently played bingos

AIRIEST and STONIER are two of my most played bingos, just thought I'd say that. Ones I have only played once (so far) include JONQUILS, UNSTATE and KATYDIDS. Jonquil is another name for the daffodil or narcissus. Below is a katydid.

Finding anagrams for your rack

If you are truly stuck for an anagram when playing Scrabble, there are some great sites which offer you suggestions. The most effective of these seems to be http://www.wordseeker.net/ as you can choose which dictionary to use, such as SOWPODS or TWL and it gives you more valid words than the other sites I have tried.

Does it seem like cheating? Well, my own take on this is that I work really hard to think of a suitable word when it is my turn, then play the word. Afterwards, I sometimes check up to see what I could have played. For example, today (see image) I had the bingo SLANTER ready to put down but was blocked by my opponent. I was going to put it next to PATE to make SPATE, but he played MOGS. Afterwards I was able to see that I could also have tried ANTLERS, RENTALS, SALTERN and STERNAL. In this case, none of them would have fitted, but maybe I'll remember some of the other words for next time.