Word Zingers Puzzle Game

Word Zingers is a fun and challenging game based on word puzzles developed by Professor Henrick Jeanty from the University of South Florida. The puzzles, which the Professor calls Magic Word Puzzles, and which form the basis of this game are similar to crossword puzzles. However, there are no clues. Instead, you must find words that fit into the grid.

Puzzle Rules

Although the puzzles may be challenging, the rules are very simple:

• Words are formed both vertically and horizontally (not diagonally).


• Only words that appear in Collins Official Scrabble Dictionary are allowed.

An Example

See if you can figure out the words that complete the following grid (the correct answer is at the bottom of the page).

And now for the game . . .

Figuring out the grids on you own can be fun, but Professor Jeanty has also developed a game based on the Magic Word Puzzles that you are sure to enjoy.

In Word Zingers, two players take turns placing a letter in the grid. The Professor's algorithm makes sure that the letter placed in the grid does not prevent accepted words from filling the rest of the grid. For each letter placed in the grid, a player gets 1 point. What makes this interesting is the "Forcing Rule". When a player places a letter that "forces" the entry in other squares of the puzzle (there is no other solution), those squares are automatically filled. The player who placed the "Forcing" letter then gets points for the automatically filled squares. Additionally, if the letter a player tries to insert does not fit (as determined by the algorithm), the player loses a point.

For example, if there is a four letter word in the grid and the first letter is P, then you could safely play an A for the second letter (there are lots of four letter words that start with "PA"). On the other hand if you were to play a Z, you would lose a point because there are no words that begin with "PZ".

The App

Ready to start playing? Just download the FREE application to your smart phone and start having fun. You can choose to play by yourself (good for training) or with others. There is a slight delay for the game to be set up with another player.

• iOS Version: Typing Tiles
• Android Version: Word Zingers

If you wish to consult the dictionary here is a link to an online version: Collins Dictionary Scrabble Word Finder

Hope you have lots of fun and maybe learn some new words with Word Zingers!

And here is the answer to our sample puzzle. Did you get it right? (I am impressed if you did, because I thought it was pretty hard!)