How to Select Word Brain Teasers
Word brain teasers enhance your vocabulary, stimulate creativity and help to keep your brain sharp and active. Easily the most popular of word brain teasers is the crossword puzzle, but there are also acrostics, jumbles, cryptograms, puns, anagrams and diagram-less puzzles to choose from.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
Select Word Brain Teasers
-
1
Pick up a copy of the "New York Times," and try your luck at one of the most challenging crossword puzzles in the world from puzzle master Will Shortz. Subscribe online to get the crossword delivered to your computer every day.
-
2
Join the National Puzzlers' League, a non-profit organization dedicated to word games and wordplay. Learn official rules for many of the most popular games and find out information about upcoming conventions.
-
-
3
Select an online chat room and play live word games. Be sure to learn chat room etiquette, such as the rules for turn order and the revealing of answers.
-
4
Look for word puzzles that feature syntax clues, themes, stock answers and current events.
-
5
Look for timed word brain teasers. Expect tough puzzles to take 20 minutes or more and easier puzzles to take under 5 minutes. Time yourself and advance to the next level as soon as you consistently finish under the allotted time.
-
6
Get an insider's perspective into the world of wordplay by renting the documentary "Wordplay" from your local video store.
Learn to Solve Word Brain Teasers
-
7
Explore puzzles with anagrams. Create new words by jumbling the letters of existing words.
-
8
Take note of clues with word reversals, which are words that are formed by reversing the letters of an existing word. Look for clues that contain the phrases "heading west" or "from right to left" as these are signs of reversals.
-
9
Notice when a word or clue is punctuated by a question mark. Know that this is a sign that the definition clue is a pun answer.
-
10
Watch out for hidden words. Keep in mind these are clues where the answer is hidden within one of the words in the clue.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Test your knowledge of a foreign language by trying an international crossword puzzle.
Select a crossword dictionary like the "Random House Webster's Crossword Puzzle Dictionary". You'll need one as you advance to doing more difficult crossword puzzles.
Be wary of cryptic clues. These are clues that contain a definition as well as some form of wordplay.
