The strange, the bizarre and the unexpected

[crazykate]

I just got COMPUTERITISES for 26 points. I did not expect it to be an actual word.
It was on a board that had been played 22 times, with the longest word record held by the word "Computers". I managed to beat the total words record by 1 word, the points total by nearly 90 points, and the best and longest word record with my new find. Wasn't expecting that!
Here's the definition according to the dictionary:

Definition of Computeritis


1. Noun. (informal humorous) Any ailment relating to or caused by computers, such as carpal tunnel syndrome. ¹

[DrPlacebo]

Also, on a separate board, I surprisingly got points for HYPERMODESTNESSES (and HYPERMODEST and HYPERMODESTNESS).

[DrPlacebo]

ROADABLE is a word.

Apparently it applies specifically to aircraft that can be driven on roads (possibly with wings folded or detached), i.e. flying cars.

[63chev]

Individuator; "who new" : one who characterizes, very interesting.....

[BoggleOtaku]

That's suprising to open such a broad door, and so random to include only this one term! Why MALLOC? What about realloc, calloc, mallopt, mallinfo, alloca, or valloc, which don't show up in lexic.us? What about terms from other languages, such as varargin or nargin in Matlab?

[DrPlacebo]

Did I just get points for MALLOC?

Apparently, I did. And after the game, the definition that was linked in the word list was in fact the C function.

[Naboka]

fer example:

arenization wasn't accepted.

Anyone who has ever frollicked on the beach realizes that sand results from arenization. You've probably thought of romatically snuggling 'round a fire, enjoying the sound of waves, thinking to yourself how grateful everyone in your group is that arenation produced such a great surface not only for towels but for kicking sand in the faces of bullies and building marvelous sandcastles.

Without arenation you'd probably be sitting on mud or rocks or dead sharks.

And being left making mudcastles,

or being buried in the mud.

What fun.

But, does the Wordtwist dictionary care?

Not a wit.

Apparently.

(barring mal-typing.)

Should it?

Naw.

The game is already slanted enough in the favor of individuals with certain skill sets. Why make it even less competitive for the average player?

There are already enough words to play with.

(maybe I should stop reading stuff by people like John Rawls and Donelson Forsyth. My wife says it gives her a headache just thinking about my thinking about that stuff.)

[Naboka]

Rather than being exasperated by the "imperfections" of Wordtwist's dictionary, it might be worth while to appreciate what we have.

No dictionary will ever be perfect. Ever. Ever. Ever.

OED has no hope of keeping up on regular English, much less all the loan words, coined words, blah, blah, blah. Humans invent language faster than dictionaries can keep pace. it's like counting to infinity.

Yes, there are established words that are left out of the new Wordtwist dictionary. Every few days I just shrug about some medical or scientific term that's not accepted--some of them really long, capable of slam dunking the previous bestly discovered word.

That's okay. It comes with the territory.

I really do appreciate all the time, resources, money invested to improve this game. It's way better than it was.

Can it get better? of course. But...

Then there would just be a new batch of words someone dispairs of their exclusion.

Sometimes my wife and I can barely restrain the desire to strangle the other over one of our many faults. Then we realize...

Wordtwist provides lots of value for what we pay. (In most cases, nothing.)

(And puzzlebaron has all those other completely worthless games that have to be maintained because so many less discriminating game players actually want to play them. And those games and players have to be tended.)

Of course, I often get the urge to post some esoteric word that's been rejected just so I can show everyone how incredibly smart I am. Then my wife reminds me of my enduring ignorance, and I let the keyboard rest.

So, I, for one, would just once again express my appreciation for Wordtwist, and the incredible efforts of admin to have made it this good and this much fun.

[DrPlacebo]

I keep trying NATTO and not getting points for it -- but it's clearly not because Japanese food words are excluded, because NORI and even more uncommon ones like FUGU score points.

The dictionary is pretty arbitrary with other loanwords too -- I've gotten points for NAIK and SUBEDAR, both of which are non-commissioned officer ranks in South Asian armies and have no other usage.

[dannyb]

What? I am now going to restart my campaign to include nage!

[DrPlacebo]

A loanword I didn't expect to get points for: EGUSI. I'm never sure what food loanwords will count and which ones won't.

[DrPlacebo]

Somehow RIOTISE is an actual word.

[bwt1213]

I got ANAMNESTICALLY, even though I couldn't remember what it meant.

I feel parasympathetic.

[BoggleOtaku]

I got ANAMNESTICALLY, even though I couldn't remember what it meant.

[lalatan]

I never heard or saw the word before I tried it, kate. I used the same method as you. Based on some of the words I've seen played by usernames I never saw before its use now seems to be widespread...