Top Games for Vocabulary Building
If you are feeling a little bit sleepy or lazy and reluctant to begin your daily vocabulary building exercise, maybe it's time for a little bit of change. Rather than testing yourself with a vocabulary quiz, how about playing a word game instead?
Scrabble
This is the classic of all word board games and the one started it all. Although many consider Scrabble as requiring intermediate vocabulary, you can still emerge victorious by strategizing on tile placement (always aim for the colored boxes!). This game will also specifically help improve your vocabulary with words containing the letters J, Q, Z and X (letters with the highest equivalent number of points).
Text Twist
What Scrabble is to board games, Text Twist is to word games for PC and mobile gadgets. Although your vocabulary building exercise will be limited to six-letter words – the maximum word length for words used in this game – those words can sometimes be pretty tricky and make a great addition to your personal word bank.
Taboo
Of all the games listed here, this is probably the most fun to play since it requires a multiple number of players making up two or more teams. The objective of the game is simple: do your best to describe a term within the time allotted but without using any words or phrases that are listed as "taboo". This is an excellent way to practice your knowledge of synonyms.
Boggle
This multi-player game is similar to Text Twist in the sense that you will be mostly mastering three to five-letter words. Nevertheless, if you put your mind to it, you can form words with double-digit numbers of letters. This game will also improve your mastery of prefixes and suffixes.
Bookworm
If you are looking for something as fun as Boggle to play on your own, then Bookworm is probably the answer to your prayers. The original version is already fun as it is, with players required to come up with words made up of three letters or more as quickly as possible and to prevent the tile bank from being completely destroyed by various types of "infected" tiles.
Its sequel, Bookworm Deluxe, is ten times better! This time, you – as the ever-popular bookworm with its distinct blend of squeaky-and-hoarse voice – will have to spell your way into defeating mythological creatures from ancient legends.
Crosswords
If you want something that will pose the greatest challenge to your vocabulary, then a crossword should do the trick. Keep in mind that crosswords vary according to their difficulty level. Diving head on into crosswords designed for advanced players may simply end up as an exercise of frustration. It's best to start with something simple, fun, and appropriate for your vocabulary and puzzle-solving level.
Hangman
Finally, if you want something a little bit more difficult than usual but not the kind that brings you headaches the way crossword puzzles sometimes do, you should try playing a game or two of the classic version of Hangman. It will not only help improve your vocabulary but hone your skills for puzzle solving based on contextual clues as well.
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