The "five letter word" game was one of the more popular activities at last year's party, and outlived the party by some months until it wound down back in February. So I decided to bring it back this year.

The following is the explanation of the game I gave last year:

I am thinking of a five-letter word. Post guesses in this thread, and I will reply how many letters match my word in both letter and place: for example, if my word were "color," "crisp" and "bilge" would both receive a score of 1, and "solar" would receive a score of 3. Whoever first guesses the word correctly wins and becomes "it" (responsible for selecting the next word and scoring guesses) for the next game.

If we were in a room together, or in a car traveling somewhere, everyone would be limited to one guess per round and would have to make their guesses in order, but for this electronic medium, we'll loosen that restriction to say merely that each player is limited to one guess before the player who is "it" gives the scores on all pending guesses, and (unless the player who is "it" decides it's been too long and waives this restriction) no one may make two guesses in a row.

Words (to be guessed) must be "common English words," that will be found in pretty much any dictionary; players may guess rarer words, so long as they can find an ordinary dictionary listing the word. As in Scrabble, words cannot require capital letters, internal spaces, periods, hyphens, or any other punctuation.

I am thinking of a five-letter word.

Have you ever played crambo? That would be a fun one for an online party.

Whisk!

whisk (Riniel Jasmina): 0


I had never heard of it (though I've now gone and read the Wikipedia page on it). The only other "writerly" sorts of games I know from my childhood ("Rhyme or Reason" and "Geography") aren't really suitable for a forum thread. (In the chat room, maybe.)

Can I guess again, or would that count as consecutive?

small?

That would be consecutive guesses, yes.

Earth

This was such a fun game! My mom enjoyed trying to guess along, as well, so I'll be keeping her updated again!

Worst

(A few games, like Family or Balderdash, that require all answers being turned in to a reader, could work if everyone PMd their answers, and the reader posted them, but that would get complicated unless everyone was playing at once.)

Start

earth (TheMadGodUnder); 3

worst (Minstrelgirl451): 1

start (Tsahraf ChahsidMimetes): 0

Early

early (Minstrelgirl451): 3

earns

earns (AnnewithanE): 2

earth: 3
early: 3
earns: 2?

Do we do another round now?

eared

Anyone may guess again so long as their previous guess has been scored and at least one other player has guessed since their last guess. There are exactly two words in my computer's spell-checker's list that fit all the scores I've given so far, one of which is the word I'm thinking of

Oh I get it. Now that I've guessed I know what the word is.

I've ignored, rather than scoring as guesses, any words "hidden" by spoiler tags. So if you want to make a different "official" guess, go ahead When another player is "it" he or she might handle "spoilered" quasi-guesses differently.

Otay... is it party?

DING DING DING!

party (Tsahraf ChahsidMimetes): 5

You're up! Think of a word and let us know you've done so, and we'll start guessing

(Where I first met this game, it's traditional to start by giving the score the previous word, "party" in this case, would get as a guess against your new word.)

Okay, I'm back, and I'm thinking of a word, and party has a score of zero (actually I thought of it before I guessed party, so that isn't actually deliberate ).

maker

awake

maker: 0
Whisk!: 1 (with an A for enthusiasm )
awake: 0

Drank

court

Wants.

Drank: 1
court: 1
Wants. : 0 (you get nothing! )

To provide a useful clue to my future self and other guessers:

drunk

Wrack *needs a thinking smiley*

drunk: 1
Spork!: 2!
Wrack: 2

ClockI love this one! Thanks, Tsahraf!

float

float: 2
Clock: 5 The Winner! And you're very welcome! I saw the monocle and couldn't resist!

Yay!!!

Alright... I have a word!

Clock - 0

Whisk!

Just to mix things up.

Whisk - 0

Apple

Misty

Apple - 0
Misty - 0



My word is common, I promise!

zebra


Scores of zero are actually (arguably) the most useful, since they let us rule out five letter/place combinations at once .

Good to know, because...
Zebra - 0
Green - 0
At least I think I know what the problem is now!

syrup

Notch?

Hooray! You're getting closer!

Syrup - 1
Notch - 1

polyp

shock

Tulip?