For my 12th birthday, I asked for a better word list (the original one was just the Unix word list).
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I upload that word list to Crossfire whenever my slimmed-down word list is making it impossible to fill a themed puzzle adequately.
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The one thing I wish is that Jeff Chen's XWord Info word list had been around at the time, since scoring your word list from scratch nowadays is like reinventing the wheel.
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Me: *gurgle* Puzzle mentor: What word list are you using?
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Some solvers think it's 100 percent computer and word list management.
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DER: Wow, I've really slacked off on maintaining my word list.
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As for my word list, it's more of a waiting game.
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What normally combats this is a simple word list of banned terms.
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I will add it to my word list if it Googles well.
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PASCO: I have a basic word list, which I haven't maintained a lot.
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PASCO: One good resource for finding words outside your word list is Onelook.com.
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I did some work supplementing the 15-letter answers in my word list.
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In the meantime, I'll be busy working on my word list ... Your thoughts?
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I use CrossFire, loaded up with Jeff Chen's word list over at xwordinfo.com.
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I wrote this puzzle just after a big update to my word list.
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While I'm making a puzzle there are many word list additions and deletions.
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One important point: I subtract words all the time, and while some that get removed from my main word list end up in the "[Witty] Word List" because they're technically fair game and may come in handy, most simply get deleted.
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You'll come to find a degree of word list maintenance that works for you.
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A good software program and word list will only get you so far, though.
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They weren't the first Scrabble players to fact-check or modify the word list.
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The product was a 10,000-word list unlike anything I'd ever seen to that point.
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We do recommend things like the word-list-based password for your 1Password master password.
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Crossfire's word list, while large, is riddled with both Maleska-style obscurities and sizable holes.
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It's also made me get far more aggressive about removing junk from my word list.
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I add that list en masse to my proper word list about once a month.
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It had not, although THREE-WAY TIE does appear on Jeff Chen's supplemental word list.
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While Mr. Hinz's word list could probably use some maturing, I liked this puzzle very much.
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Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said the forbidden word list was reminiscent of George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984.
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We should talk about one of the main tools for controlling that palette: the humble word list.
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If a word is in your word list, the program recognizes it as fair game for a crossword.
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I know that aspiring constructors say they are daunted by the word list aspect of construction: Don't be.
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I also learned that my word list has a lot of tedious re-ranking in store for it.
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How many hours a week, on average, do you spend on refining your tools, like your word list?
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Zynga has steadily added to the word list and actively solicits player submissions, receiving nearly 5000 a day.
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This reporter can number among her proud achievements petitioning Words With Friends to add "ew" to its word list.
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To make the puzzle, I created a word list that replaced all instances of "ATE" and "OO" with 8.
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The word list, it seems, acts as a cheat sheet that helps test subjects unconsciously narrow down the possibilities.
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As I'm constructing, if the computer suggests a word I don't like, I'll delete it from my word list.
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Samir generated thousands of pairs from my word list and I combed through them to find ones that might work.
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Michael Blake gently encouraged me to learn to use Crossfire for grids with fill from Matt Ginsberg's free word list.
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The association's official word list won't be updated with the new Merriam-Webster additions until early next year, he added.
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After receiving the word list, I sifted through it a bit to see which entries really stood out to me.
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"I had a one-word list of things I needed: everything ," the author of this bold collection of memoiristic essays states.
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It is possible, but the results are usually very poor, because the computer word list has to be very, very large.
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DER: My word list originally started as a few English dictionaries combined with words that had previously appeared in crossword puzzles.
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I'm going to look through the "high priority" section of my word list: RON SWANSON … "REAL MATURE" … BRIE LARSON … trying those.
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Nowadays, I've gotten so used to having a scored word list that I've forgotten what it's like to construct without one.
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Adding to my word list is such a constant activity that I can't really even calculate it in terms of hours.
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I also sometimes discover a new corpus of idioms or movies or something that I add programmatically to my word list.
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I redid the puzzle after switching to the new Xwordinfo word list in February 2016, and the second version was accepted.
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I make tweaks to my word list whenever I'm making a grid, so something like five to 10 hours a week.
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Because of this, Scrabble's word list, the sum total of playable words, is more akin to a cipher than a lexicon.
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The software, in tandem with my word list (formed by taking Jeff Chen's word list, adding a bunch of stuff manually and via web scraping, and scoring some stuff with a simple algorithm based mostly on Google hits) allow me to make much better grids than I used to be able to in a fraction of the time.
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As Ms. Luttrell adds to and edits her word list, she will find that she has a lot more options going forward.
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I would have never come up with CODE MONKEY without the xwordinfo word list, but I needed a matching ten letter entry.
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Scanning through the A's of my Personal Word List, I like ABSENTEE BALLOT better than AARON BURR SIR or ACL REPAIR, for example.
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One of the tricky things about crowdsourcing anything, especially something as subjective as a word list, is that everyone has slightly different tastes.
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Fortunately, between the time I first constructed this puzzle and its revision, I'd added a new entry to my word list: 11-Down.
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It's useful to have a good word list and practice your construction a lot, but sometimes luck plays a huge role in puzzle production.
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I replied that I don't do seed entries — instead I focus on crafting the best stacks and go wherever my word list takes me.
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Any program is fine, but the key factor is a strong word list (most programs come with default word lists that are utter poo).
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"It used to be if you were making crosswords, you'd have a dictionary, a thesaurus, an almanac and maybe a word list," he said.
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Andy Richter was apparently overseas, but took the time to tweet this (accurate) observation: Vowing revenge, I added TEAM COCO to my word list.
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One of the limitations of the tool is that it uses an unranked word list (of freeware origin) that still contains plenty of clunkers.
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The key component of the program is the ability to score your word list and fill the puzzle with words only above a certain score.
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He also loves to watch me construct, often suggests new entries for me to add to my word list and even develops rough theme ideas.
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This morning I added DRAG UNDER ("Pull to the depths") — which hadn't been in my word list — while trying to completing a SECRET SAUCE theme.
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December 18, 2017 8:05 pm I've been reeling from the "forbidden" word list sent from the Trump administration to the CDC a few days ago.
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However, following their pregnancies, the mothers had fewer correct responses on the verbal word list learning task, though to an extent considered insignificant by the researchers.
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I lowered the minimum score in my word list as far as I could, and all of the sudden, I hit upon a fill with ELDERBERRY.
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Curious to see whether it was possible to scramble states with longer names, I wrote a Java program to mine a large word list for options.
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For example, I hadn't touched my word list in weeks, and then in the span of one day I had added LATINX, JANELLE MONAE and INTERSEX.
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Zynga's conception of words is a wholesale divergence from Scrabble's word list and its impact ripples from the words, down to the gameplay, and onto players.
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By installing a bookmark in your (Google Chrome) browser, Mute can be used to automatically add those top 100 words into your muted word list for Twitter.
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DER: If you rely on Autofill, that guarantees you won't have the opportunity to introduce something new that isn't in your word list, so we discourage it.
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If I think of a novel entry, usually I'll just make a puzzle using it right away, at which time I'll add it to my word list.
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While autofilling certainly doesn't guarantee that a solution is possible, the technique eliminates concerns of human oversight, and is especially useful with a well-maintained word list.
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A brute-force approach would involve testing 5,040 permutation strings of seven letters against a word list, so I figured a bit of skillful coding was involved.
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If you're using a 20-character password, something that's just the scrambled characters and letters is going to be enormously stronger than something based on a word list.
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The administration included the word "transgender" on its banned word list for the Center for Disease Control and also disqualified transgender people from the military earlier this year.
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By June of the next year, my program and my word list had improved to the point that I thought it was worth giving the theme another go.
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I'd just scored all the 7-letter entries in my word list, so I decided to see how lively a 7x5 "mini-grid" I could make just for fun.
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Getting three seed entries from my word list to stack in the upper left was both a ridiculous stroke of luck and a testament to Paolo's grid design skills.
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Anyway, for his 12th birthday Daniel asked for "a better word list" — a database of words, names and phrases that a computer can use to fill a crossword grid.
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I didn't have very many 10-letter seed entries at the time, so I was thrilled to discover HIDDEN MIKE and CHAIN EMAIL in Matt Ginsberg's crowdsourced word list!
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Zynga likely will not ever release the full Words With Friends word list and generally seems disinterested in the high-stakes, probability-oriented play that occurs in competitive Scrabble.
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Speaking of which, I've been working on both Dr.Fill and the my word list recently, trying to use some additional techniques from machine learning to improve performance on both sides.
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You can use the functions to sort the words alphabetically, by how common or rare they are, and by their appearance on various word lists, including an Academic Word List.
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Having a scored word list made my life a lot easier — I was suddenly able to squeeze in more zing than ever before while still keeping the short fill smooth.
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I have access to Jeff Chen's enormous word list as a subscribing member to XWordInfo, so I really have Jeff to thank for such high-quality maintenance of that list.
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He showed me the software people use to help write good puzzles, as well as where to find a quality word list, not to mention a ton of other advice.
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In any case, this reminded me of the value of not deleting anything from your word list, because you never know when it might rescue you from the dreaded EARED SEALS.
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It takes zero effort to downgrade bummer words in your word list (URINE, TUMOR, either of IDI AMIN's names), but your puzzles will be more fun to solve as a result.
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That's hard to do without a constantly updated word list at your disposal, to say nothing of software that helps you to be realistic about whether the puzzle will actually work.
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When I started constructing crosswords, I made sure that the 100 or so most common words of several languages were in my word list (to the occasional dismay of some editors).
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Dizzy with DayQuil, unable to focus on work, I logged into Prolific and played my first round, foolishly confident that my lengthy word list would loft me into the winners' circle.
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It scans student emails, documents, chats, and calendars, and compares what students write against a "blocked word list," which contains profanity as well as references to self-harm, violence, bullying, or drugs.
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Then somehow, by a stroke of luck, which I partially credit to having happened to have added SKI BOOT to my word list just a few months earlier, I found this solution.
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Thus, I lack a word list entirely, although I do keep a Google Doc of interesting words and phrases I stumble upon over time, regardless of whether or not they're puzzle worthy.
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The Scrabble dictionary by Collins, published on Thursday, adds to the 276,000 words already in play, making it the most comprehensive Scrabble word list ever produced, Collins said in a news release.
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I'll add words as I go — if I find a good, new entry in that letter pattern search as I noted above, I'll add it then and there to my word list.
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I don't construct themeless puzzles, so I don't keep my own word list, per se … But I have hundreds of scraps of paper with partial ideas scrawled on them. Must. Get. Bound. Notebook.
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I'm pretty new at this business, so I don't yet have my own carefully curated word list — a friend kindly gifted me his, so I'm standing on the shoulders of giants in that department.
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The funniest part of all this is that no matter how careful you think you're being about your word list, someone solving (or reviewing!) your puzzle might still disagree with what constitutes good vs.
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I wrote a Java program to mine my word list for possible theme entries and discovered there were just enough good ones to make a puzzle out of, something I'd initially been worried about.
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I would say that I delete 50-60 words from my word list per three-hour constructing session, all with an eye toward being able to focus on the options that appeal to me more.
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Four of these theme entries had never appeared in a New York Times crossword and two had never appeared in any big-name crossword, but fortunately the XWord Info word list had all of them.
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For variety puzzles (which is what I spend a lot more time making these days), I have a variety of software tools that I wrote for doing specialized types of searches against my word list.
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And flexible tools like a custom banned word list can let individual users take matters into their own hands to clear up their comments section, should someone begin posting hateful or otherwise offensive or tasteless remarks.
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Stateside sales doubled almost immediately, but unfortunately the company threw the baby out with the bathwater and since that moment the word Kinect has been on the banned word list for Microsoft's executives and marketing team.
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David is a master grid technician and I believe he has the most precisely scored word list on the planet, and he also has interned with Will and Joel for much of the past two summers.
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I've removed most gun references from my word list — I don't know that I care so much about other people using them, as they're a part of everyday life (and for reasons that aren't strictly fatal).
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His next step should be to fine tune his word list, as there are some entries that solvers in the United States might look at and deem "gluey," like ULNA, I CAN, OTOE and OR NOT.
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The word list is definitely better, which should help Dr.Fill as well, since one of its criteria when it's a bit confused is just trying to guess how good any specific fill is from a crossword perspective.
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If memory serves, Matt Ginsberg had just sent out the final version of a crowdsourced word list that numerous other constructors and I had been working on, so I was excited to put it to the test!
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Filling those stacks and 753x9 sections is not difficult if you want to just hit "autofill" in your crossword-making software, but filling them well takes experience, a finely tuned word list and a lot of persistence.
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And while Mr. DeLoriea will build up his word list as he goes on and remove some of the shorter, less desirable fill, this is a very nice debut puzzle with a distinct air of freshness about it.
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Based on XWord Info's word list, there are 317 valid strings with a J as the first letter of a 5-letter word, versus 27, 84, 48, and nine valid strings when the J is in the other positions.
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Will and Joel thought this was a fun and simple Monday theme, but my initial fill was horrid and all those crossing words were too much for my word list at that time, even at the 78 word maximum.
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That decade involved not only fortifying my word list with new lively short entries, but also removing weak entries at every step: I produced many many failed attempts — containing unacceptable entries — until I finally achieved the quality of today's puzzle.
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I would love to see you make some time in between all the things you do to polish up your word list and put some really cool stuff in there, but I am looking forward to seeing more from you.
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The guide itself includes everything from a word list to ensure the consistent spelling of our industry jargon (it's "data center," not "datacenter," for example), how to use hyphens (and when not to), why you should use active voice and other basics.
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And RUBIO for some reason wasn't in my word list, but he responsibly bailed me out of that SW corner with true robotic aplomb and a promise that, in his America, I could keep all the earnings from my burgeoning TIRE SWING business.
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While there will be continuing tweaks to the programming, it seems to be a solid step in the right direction, going beyond a "banned word" list that some forums use and allowing for nuance that a human moderator brings to the table.
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The final product took many back-and-forths, so even if my word list is more fine-tuned than Bruce's (which is a big if), there's no way this would have turned out as well without his input every step of the way.
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The Official Word List (OWL) and the Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary (OSPD) omitted known words, excluded words with more than 8 letters, and generally lacked the thoroughness their assured titles projected (many words lacked their plural forms or had weird, arcane pluralizations).
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My strategy used to be to clue it matter-of-factly, and I'm glad to see the editors kept my clue, but I've since just removed it from my word list entirely, since I think it's an inherently loaded word that implies a negative judgment.
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It can sometimes feel like a devolution, but this turn back toward words-as-words transforms both the nature of the game and the words themselves, and is a direct product of how Zynga, the publisher of Words With Friends, manages its word list.
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I wrote a script to find all the five-letter words in my word list which would work (daring not even dream a six might work — I did confirm this later though!), and was very happy to see BEARD pop out, immediately thinking of today's revealer.
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I also keep a list called "[Expletive, rhymes with 'Witty'] Word List," which is for entries that I am personally disinclined to use in a themeless (partials, prefixes, suffixes, most abbreviations) but which come in handy for themed puzzles, where the rules on these things are a little looser.
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Some shout outs are merited for being able to CHECK off that BOX: Specifically, thanks go to The Times's Sam Ezersky for patiently providing feedback on multiple iterations of the grid, Peter Broda for his updates to my word list and to my wife, Jessica, my forever editor and test solver.
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I soon realized that having four top-notch nine-letter entries plus no junk in the surrounding fill was going to be too hard, given how unoptimized my word list was at the time, so I decided to shoot for 75 percent top-notch nine-letter entries plus smooth crossers.
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"As difficult as those words offered those co-champions were, we had a more difficult section in our word list, but we couldn't go to them because our rules bound us to stick to that 25-word championship word section," Paige Kimble, the bee's executive director, told The A.P.. Vanya Shivashankar, 14, of Olathe, Kan.
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Then one day I was sifting through said Notes app (which is really just a bunch of half-baked theme ideas and things I want to add to my word list) and thought some more about it, eventually arriving at the idea of repurposing the hyphen from the line break as part of the crossing downs.
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I wanted RUMI at 26-Down, a Persian poet that Googles incredibly well, but he did not survive the final edit — I can imagine that as an editor you have to think long and hard before you allow a short two-vowel word like that because once it gets in everyone's word list you will be seeing it often.
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Some memorable things about this puzzle: 1) When we couldn't find enough theme entries in our word list, we did it the "old-fashioned" way by searching the good ol' World Wide Web, which resulted in a few debut entries, 2) It worked out nicely that the DICE entries rotated in a progression (though that was probably more luck than skill), 3) Given the theme density and the fixed placement of the DICE, we're happy that not too much crosswordese was needed, 4) Karl's thrilled that his Star Trek shout-out at 31-A survived and 5) Amanda prefers the editing team's clue at 24-D — parenthood has given new meaning to Seuss-isms (and Mr. Rogers).
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