# What do you call this kind of word game? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 26, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-kind-of-word-game/341768 "2006-01-26T22:22:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-kind-of-word-game/341768/1 "2006-01-26T22:22:57Z")
I’m wondering if there’s a common name for this word game: You take a long word and find out how many shorter words you can create using only those letters. For example, you can take the word “relativity” and find “later,” “ivy,” and “tire.” I just realized I was calling this an anagram, but an anagram actually scrambles all of the letters from the long word into a different word or sentence. Am I missing a name, or is this one of those mysterious holes in the English language" ---
**Author:** ![the\_PC\_apeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac8455/32.png) [@the\_PC\_apeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_PC_apeman)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-kind-of-word-game/341768/2 "2006-01-26T23:02:55Z")
There’s a similar feature in our newspaper by Kathleen Saxe that is, unsatisfyingly, called [Word Game](http://www.unitedfeatures.com/ufsapp/viewFeatureSample.do?featureId=139). Sorry, I wish I could find a better term too. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2006, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-kind-of-word-game/341768/3 "2006-01-27T02:08:52Z")
Yahoo Games has a version called [Text Twist](http://games.yahoo.com/games/downloads/tx.html). ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2006, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-kind-of-word-game/341768/4 "2006-01-27T02:48:16Z")
There’s no agreed-upon, “technical” term similar to anagram or acrostic. I’d call it a word scramble or something similar. ---
**Author:** ![outside\_artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@outside\_artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outside_artist)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2006, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-kind-of-word-game/341768/5 "2006-01-27T17:13:11Z")
In a word game book I used to have, they were called “Alphabits”. I love that game and I am wondering where you heard of it and where you can get the game from. Is there a book or a daily newspaper that has it? I remember back in the 70s when I lived in PHilly, the Inquirer had a daily feature just called “Daily Word Game”. Numb. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2006, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-kind-of-word-game/341768/6 "2006-01-27T19:00:13Z")
Astraware distributes a version of Text Twist for PDAs. It’s a fun game – it’s one I always keep on my Palm when I need a little diversion. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2006, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-kind-of-word-game/341768/7 "2006-01-27T19:27:09Z")
I’ve seen this game called “Word Mine” in several different settings. ---
**Author:** ![outside\_artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@outside\_artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outside_artist)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-kind-of-word-game/341768/8 "2006-01-29T04:10:11Z")
Thank you so much!