Firstly, just to help you visualize who you’re talking to, I’m the guy on the far left in the big photo at the top of this blog. That photo was taken at the 2008 National Scrabble Championship (Australia) and was something of a highlight for me in a life-long addiction to word play.
In that same year, I started a website (not this one!) called Word Buff, which I dedicated to the subjects of word games and puzzles.
It was natural to offer a Word of the Day to that audience, but when I eventually did, the response and the requirements for providing it soon became overwhelming. As a result, I decided to branch out and dedicate an entire blog to it. And that’s the blog you’re reading right now.
Why a new Word of the Day when there are already hundreds of them out there?
Well, those of us interested in word games and puzzles tend to have a very different perspective on words than pure vocabulary types. You see, we like to know things like whether a word has any interesting anagrams, or what letters (called hooks) can be placed at the front or back of the word to form a new word, or what crossword clues might be used to describe the word obliquely.
Also, the particular words we choose to learn are often not all that helpful in everyday conversations. That’s because we like to learn new words that pay dividends when we play Scrabble and Words With Friends, solve crossword puzzles, or compete in spelling bees.
So they’re exactly the sorts of words I focus on each day here.
Finally, as I know a large proportion of my readers have a soft spot in their hearts for one particular word game above all others, I endeavor to make sure that each and every word of the day you’ll find here is allowed in Scrabble! That doesn’t mean my daily words are about Scrabble, mind you. I cover tons of word play topics here. But I guess you could summarize by saying that I offer a Scrabble-friendly Word of the Day ;-)
And even more finally, if you prefer to get my word of the day via Email, Facebook, or Twitter, you’ll see a bunch of links at the top of every blog post that will let you do just that.
Or you could just click one of them now…
Other Daily Word Buff Stuff via…
Wherever you like to learn your new words, I hope to see you there real soon!
All the best,
Derek McKenzie, aka Word Buff
Thank you for this excellent site. Your creative thinking skills are most apparent. You bring joy to many with your extensive research. Your efforts are much appreciated. You should be proud of your achievements.
Just love your ‘word of the day’, the English language is such an interesting mix of multicultural words and foreign languages. I admire your knowledge and interest and look forward to increasing my word power.
Derek, believe it or not, this is my first visit here! I never clicked the link in the email because I just assumed it would have taken me to Word-Buff.com. (How cool is it that you’ve snagged both domains!)
Anyway, thanks for this site. My Words With Friends games have improved vastly.
I’ll be highlighting this blog on my own blog, probably in a few hours from now ;)
Cheers,
Mitch
Good photo! That would be the final round (round 24), with you playing the then-current leader David Eldar. And you beat him, so he slipped back to second. Playing on the right at board 2 is Helen Maurus against Naween Fernando, the eventual tournament winner. Julian McKail (headless) is playing Alastair Richards at board 3. (All tracked down from the results at the Scrabble Australia website.)