Word chain, also known as grab on behind, last and first, alpha and omega, and the name game,
is a
word game
Word games (also called word game puzzles or word search games) are spoken, board, or video games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties.
Word games are generally used as a source of entertainment, but can add ...
in which players come up with words that begin with the letter or letters that the previous word ended with. A category of words is usually chosen, there is a time limit such as five seconds,
[ and words may not be repeated in the same game.]
Time
An example chain for food would be: Soup - Peas - Sugar - Rice.English as a second language
English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EF ...
and as a car game
Car games are games played to pass the time on long car journeys, often started by parents to amuse restless children. They generally require little or no equipment or playing space. Some such games are designed specifically to be played while t ...
.
Related games
A similar Japanese game is shiritori
Shiritori (; ) is a Japanese word game in which the players are required to say a word which begins with the final ''kana'' of the previous word. No distinction is made between ''hiragana'', ''katakana'', and ''kanji''. "Shiritori" literally means ...
, in which the word must begin with the last mora, or kana
The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most pr ...
, of the previous word. It includes a rule for loss: words ending with N may not be used since the kana is never used in the beginning of words. The game antakshari
Antakshari, also known as Antyakshari (अंताक्षरी ) is a spoken parlor game played in India. Each contestant sings the first verse of a song (often Classical Hindustani or Bollywood songs) that begins with the consonant of Hin ...
(''ant'' means ''end'', ''akshar'' means ''letter''), played in India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
and Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
also involves chaining, but with verses of movie songs (usually Bollywood songs
Hindi film songs, more formally known as Hindi Geet or filmi songs and informally known as Bollywood music, are songs featured in Hindi films. Derived from the song-and-dance routines common in Indian films, Bollywood songs, along with dance ...
). In Russia a game similar to the Word chain is called Words (Russian: слова), or "A Game of Cities" () if played using city and town names. In French-speaking countries, the game ''marabout'' involves the last syllable.
In Chinese languages
The Sinitic languages (漢語族/汉语族), often synonymous with "Chinese languages", are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute the major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is ...
a similar game is known as ''jielong'' ( 接龍), where players start new words with the last hanzi
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
of the preceding word. Another variant of the game is known as ''tzuchuan'' (字串), which utilises adding, removing or replacing of one of the character's components to form another character. The most popular variant of the game is known as ''chengyu jielong'' (成語
''Chengyu'' () are a type of traditional Chinese idiomatic expression, most of which consist of four characters. ''Chengyu'' were widely used in Classical Chinese and are still common in vernacular Chinese writing and in the spoken language ...
接龍), which involves four character idioms instead.
There is also a similar South Slavic game called kalodont, in which players continue the chain by beginning with last two letters of the previous word.
In Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
, a similar game is ''kkeunmaritgi'' ( 끝말잇기), in which players must say a word that starts with the last Hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...
letter of the previous word. In Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
, there is a game called "Fazan" ("Pheasant"), in which players must say a word that starts with the last two letters of the previous word.
Writing poetry following the same principle is called ''capping verses.''skolion
A skolion (from grc, σκόλιον) (pl. skolia), also scolion (pl. scolia), was a song sung by invited guests at banquets in ancient Greece. Often extolling the virtues of the gods or heroic men, skolia were improvised to suit the occasion and ...
.
See also
* Generalized geography In computational complexity theory, generalized geography is a well-known PSPACE-complete problem.
Introduction
Geography is a children's game, where players take turns naming cities from anywhere in the world. Each city chosen must begin with the ...
, a PSPACE-complete In computational complexity theory, a decision problem is PSPACE-complete if it can be solved using an amount of memory that is polynomial in the input length (polynomial space) and if every other problem that can be solved in polynomial space can b ...
problem in computational complexity theory
In theoretical computer science and mathematics, computational complexity theory focuses on classifying computational problems according to their resource usage, and relating these classes to each other. A computational problem is a task solved by ...
.
References
Word games
Children's games
Car games
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