Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Play Dictionary


When you're bored and there's nothing in the room but a stuffy old dictionary and a friend or two as bored as you, you're in luck. Dictionaries are a great read and you can take it in turns. No wait, that's not what this article is about! Some people might enjoy reading them but this is the ''game'' dictionary and it's a lot more fun. Play on.





Steps
1. Have at least two players. It's not only a little lonely by yourself but the game won't work. There isn't really any upper limit and a larger group can result in more shouting and merriment.
2. Pick the dictionary master/mistress/fiend. The name doesn't really matter provided this person can read and has a good imagination.
3. Have the dictionary fiend quickly flip through the dictionary looking for a difficult word. The dictionary fiend must quickly make up two alternative definitions and provide a real one as well. We'll use the word "irrefragable" as an example. The dictionary fiend would ask the other players:
Does the word "irrefragable" mean:
Something that cannot be unravelled or loosened?
**An argument or fact that cannot be disputed? [this is the right response but you don't tell]
**A fragrance that has gone off in a bad way?
4. Allow the players to answer. They are allowed to ask questions and the dictionary fiend is allowed to embellish the answers. The first person to get it right gets a point.
5. Keep playing until a set number of points is won by a person (or a team if you prefer). Five is a good set number. The dictionary fiend is then the person who won (or a member of the team). Play for as long as the fun keeps going; it can become tiring after a while of guessing and it does tend to degenerate into very silly statements as people tire of it!

Tips
*The arguments can be great fun if you have good sports on the team.
*Be sure to have dictionary fiends who are good with making things up.

Materials
*A quality dictionary that has a lot of long, hard and long-forgotten English words in it. Most dictionaries should suffice.

Photo courtesy of Daquella Manera's Flickr photostream.

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