Anyone up for a good word game?? Hi everyone! It’s Rachel again from The Mormon Home. This may seem like a weird question, but do you have a favorite word? I’m not talking about a name or place, I literally mean a word. It could fun to say or spell. The meaning is not the important part! Razzmatazz is one of my favorites. Indubitably. Mojito. Thrum. All words that tickle my tongue and give me a little thrill. I love a good word game.
Years ago I came across this great countdown on Ted McCagg’s blog: he made brackets for each letter and finally winnowed the word list down to the best word ever. He thinks it’s diphthong. Diphthong. Pretty special, no doubt.
Since the colder months are coming, I thought I’d turn this idea into a full blown family word game! It would be perfect to set up around the house during a long Thanksgiving weekend with family. Also great for a youth group or Family Home Evening. I think it would be an awesome game for an evening adult party–make Scrabble or Boggle the prize for the night. A great road trip game too!
I have lots of easy printables to make it simple. Of course, you could come up with your own finalists for each letter, rank them, then put them into brackets yourself. Grab a dictionary! Here are some blank brackets sheets (8 word brackets and 16 word brackets for letters like S and P that have a lot of great words). This is for the true word nerds (me!) who would enjoy hanging out with the dictionary and arguing every bracket together.
To make it faster I also pulled together a bunch of great words for each letter into one easy to print list. I also pulled together the winners from each letter, A-Z, if you want to make this game much shorter. The letters PRSTV and W all have 16 word brackets. S, in fact, has two 16 word brackets. There are so many great S words! This pulls a total of 32 great words to make four Final Four brackets.
If you’re happy using the pre-selected finalists that I have already chosen, you are in luck! I made pre-selected brackets easy to print for every letter of the alphabet and two for the letter S! You can print them as a full page per letter (great for a bigger party) or quarter page for each letter (as seen in the first image, above).
If a bracket for every letter seems absolutely bananas, not to worry, just jump straight to the final four. Brackets available, four per page, right here. This version of the game would be awesome for a road trip. Not too long or complex, but still tons of fun!
When you’re done, let me know what your winning word is!
For more family fun games like this, check out these posts:
Creative License Plate Game – Decipher the Hidden Message!
Family Game – “Shoveling Snow”
Entertaining Kids Without Electronics: 8 Family Games They Will Love
