A word game is an exercise that requires the use of ingenuity.
A game is an activity carried out for recreational purposes. It may be a competition or an exercise that is done simply for the entertainment it provides.
A word , meanwhile, is a linguistic unit that differs from others through blank spaces in writing and pauses in pronunciation. Words usually have meaning (sense).
The idea of pun , in this way, refers to an ingenious use of terms to generate a funny effect or produce a surprise. These games can be constituted as a hobby or have an educational purpose.
Development of a word game
To create and understand a word game, you need certain language skills. Generally, a large vocabulary and knowledge of spelling and grammar are required for the activity to have the expected result.
Puns can appear in different contexts. They are common in literature , forming part of books. But they are also frequent in oral language as entertainment.
A crossword puzzle is a game of words.
Some examples
A palindrome is an example of a pun. It is an expression that can be read the same way forward or backwards, just as happens with capicua numbers.
Take the case of “Anita washes the tub.” This phrase can be read conventionally (from left to right), but also in the opposite direction . The same thing happens with “Give rice to the fox the abbot.”
Anagrams are also word games. These are two or more words that are formed with the same letters located in a different order. “Flamenco” and “Come flan” are anagrams: both are composed with the same letters ( A / C / E / F / L / N / N / O ) in different locations.
Word games as a hobby
The notion of word game is used to name certain entertainments that are based on this type of language procedures. Crossword puzzles and word searches , in this framework, are word games.
As you can see, they are literally games that are based on the use of words. A crossword puzzle presents a grid with boxes that must be completed with letters to form, both vertically and horizontally, the words indicated according to the definitions provided.
Word searches , meanwhile, are grids where many letters can be seen. The player must find the words that are “hidden” in that accumulation of letters, where there are no spaces or punctuation marks that separate them.
The case of paradoxes
Paradoxes are sometimes referred to as puns. It may be a proposition that does not coincide with common sense or that expresses an idea that is logically contradictory.
“This sentence is false” is an example of a paradox. If the sentence is indeed false, it is true, since the falsehood it states would imply its truthfulness. In turn, if it is accepted that its statement is true (that is, if the falsehood it announces is true), it must be considered false.