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Smart Word Games

Word games are NOT all the same!  Find word and letter games that make you think, make you laugh, and test your mental flexibility...

Offering many terrific toys our kids love, Toys at Amazon.com,  MindWareOnline, Discovery Store, Zome! and many more - all the links on Shop Hoagies! - are all Hoagies' Gifted Education Page associates.  For each purchase from Hoagies' Page links, these stores give a small percentage of your purchase price to Hoagies' Gifted Education Page, at no cost to you -- Thanks!

1-2-3 OY! and A-B-C OY! card games (numbers or letters) for the younger folks, multi-player or solitaire... lots of fun!

 

AmuseAmaze (or from Amazon) (ages 8+)

More than just a spelling game, a fun-filled lexical labyrinth of quick words and quicker wits, a word game where words don't have to be the biggest to be the best. Players form words by using the letter tiles and the letters printed on the board, and move through the maze. The first player to make their way through the colored target spaces, and reach the end of the maze wins... a different game every time you play!
 

Apples to Apples, Party Box Edition or Apple Crate Edition (ages 12+)

This game receives rave reviews from our gifted community, for family or group fun!
Also check out...  (And for a full list of the words in each set, visit Munching Apples fan site)

Apples to Apples Jr. (ages 7-12) fun as soon as they can read!

Apples to Apples Jr. 9+ (ages 9-14) an intermediate level, tons of fun! (or from Amazon)

Apples to Apples the basic set

Apples to Apples Customizable Cards create your own green and red apple cards (for inkjet printers)

Party Box Expansion #1 and Party Box Expansion #2 more apples, more fun!

Apples to Apples Bible Edition

Apples to Apples Jewish Edition or Apples to Apples Yiddish Edition
 

Bananagrams (or from Amazon) (2 or more players, ages 7 and up, younger for language / spelling gifted kids)

Grab more tiles, and reorganize existing tiles into new words - the banana bag stores the game and rules when they're not in use.  Great for vocabulary building or spelling practice, too!  And try Spanish Bananagrams!  And Jumbo Bananagrams with twice the tiles, for an extra large crowd!
 

Blurt! (3-12 players, ages 10+) The uproarious word race game!

Blurt!, off the market for several years, is back and better than ever. Think fast! What word means "a partially dried grape"? Be the first to say "raisin," and you're on your way to winning this riotous game of rapid word recall. Players take turns reading clues aloud, competing to blurt out the correct answer first and move ahead on the board. The first person or team to circle the board wins. Sounds simple, but as the race for the right word heats up, and the blurting gets boisterous, it's easy to get tongue-tied! Great vocabulary builder for kids, hilarious addition to adult parties and family game night...
 

Boggle (2-6 players, ages 8 and up) The original 3-minute word search game!

Shake up the lettered cubes, drop them into the grid and start the timer.  Then race to see who can list the most words with the highest point value among the random letter assortment in the grid!  Or try Boggle Jr. or Boggle To Go
 

Heximania (2-4 players, ages 6 and up, mixed abilities)

Spinning the board as you go, take turns placing letter tiles and earning points for each word you build. As long as letters are adjacent and in the proper sequence, words may be read in any direction - up, down, backwards, forwards, or in a sweeping swirl! Can be played at all skill levels; perfect for the entire family...
 

In A Pickle (10 and up)

Creative thinking and outrageous scenarios. Try to win a set of cards by fitting smaller things into bigger things -- a baby goes in a bathtub, which is in a house, in Hollywood. Play the fourth word card to claim the set, unless one of your opponents can trump with a larger word...
 

Jumbulaya The Rearranging, Ever Changing Word Jumble Game (ages 8+) (or from Amazon)

An addictive, multifaceted word strategy game.  Work with 5 letter tiles on your tray and all the letters on the board, rearranging, adding and trading them, building and claiming longer and longer words each turn. As you build words horizontally, keep your eyes peeled for a Jumbulaya, a 7-, 8-, or 9-tile word that can be spelled vertically on the board. Plan multiple moves ahead to create longer and longer words. Earns points for all lines you claim, bonus points for using "letter-combo" tiles, and even more points for being the first to find a Jumbulaya. The player who earns the most points, wins!
 

Keesdrow Deluxe by Pywacket LLC (2 to 6 players or more in teams, also a great solitaire game) (or Keesdrow with plastic tiles from Fox Imaging)

The ultimate word seek game!  Real wooden tiles contain 4 letters each, double-sided for more combinations, and then distributed in an 8x8 board - it's a new challenge with each game.  Find words in adjacent letters, use letters your opponent already used for double or triple points, but watch out for "red" letters...

 

Klutz Books

From paper airplanes to Legos, marbles and jacks, from juggling to peg solitaire to desktop football, from knitting and sewing to watercolor art to thumbprint art... There are so many of these great books, they get their own Hoagies page!

Magnetic A to Z

There's more to do with magnetic letters than you can imagine!
 

Last Word The uproarious race to have the final say! (2-8 players, ages 8+)

Subject: “Vegetables”…Letter: “C". Players race opponents and the random-interval timer to yell them out…Carrots! Cucumbers! Corn! Cauliflower! ‘tick-tick’… The player with the Last Word in before the timer sounds advances…Oh! Celery! BZZZT!
 

Legends of Druidawn

This creative writing game inspires reluctant children to get words onto paper. 
In the Beginning...  A Crucial Message from the Sleeping Guardian:
I beseech you, do not read any further into this visionary document before you have first heard my tale. For I hold the secret to the creation of Druidawn, and in fact, the knowledge to all realms of human myth. It was my people who brought the gift of magic to Earth thousands of years ago, before there were castles and knights, before the construction of the Grecian temples, when the great Egyptian pyramids were nothing but sketches in the sand...  Also visit Legends of Druidawn Creative Writing Solutions and the companion website The World of Druidawn
 

My Word and My Word Junior

Fast-paced word-building card game - Junior has more vowels and less difficult letters in the deck
 

Obscurity (ages 8+ / 3rd grade+) by Educational Insights

Find all the words you can on the card, but beware, words found by other players get removed from the score!
 

Once Upon a Time: The Storytelling Card Game (all ages)

Players create a story together, using cards that show typical elements from fairy tales. One player is the Storyteller, and creates a story using the ingredients on her cards. She tries to guide the plot towards her own ending. The other players try to use cards to interrupt her and become the new Storyteller. The winner is the first player to play out all her cards and end with her Happy Ever After card...
 

Quiddler the short word game, from the creators of SET

Create words from the letters in your hand, starting with three-letter words and growing each round.  But beware, the longest word isn't always the best!
 

Rattled (two players or teams, all ages gifted: as soon as kids can spell words) by Educational Insights

Shake the letters, and race to find the longest word!
 

Rummy Roots and More Roots by Eternal Hearts

 There are 4 different card games in one deck. Each game (or level) is designed to be fun and stress-free for children and adults alike!
 

Scattergories The classic fast-thinking categories game (2-6 players, ages 12+)

Right off the top of your head name a restaurant, fruit, toy, Halloween costume, and weapon--and make sure your answers all begin with the same initial letter. There's 144 different categories to challenge your mind...
 

Scrabble Classic Edition

After 50 years, it's still the best word game in the world!  Also Scrabble, Jr., Scrabble Game Folio (Travel), Deluxe Turntable Scrabble, and Scrabble Premier Wood Edition
 

Sentence Says

A think-fast game of sentence creation. Form a sentence with words starting with the letters on the letter cards you draw on your turn-but be quick, before time runs out! A roll of the die determines if you have 30, 45, or 60 seconds to make your sentence. Draw G, R, Q, B, L, and I, and create... Queen Isabella likes big red grapes; or maybe: Growing irritated, Robert quits lottery betting.  Bonus points for following your action card...
 

Snatch-It

Quick to learn, always fun and challenging.  Players shout out words as they see them, taking them from the center or stealing from their opponents...
 

Think A Grams Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced (or buy all 6, savings Set of Think A Grams), and Word Winks)

Find the common phrase in the word/picture...
                 0      
            bachelors
            masters
            PhD
Answer below...
 

ThinkFun (was Binary Arts) great logic puzzles and games for all ages (mostly labeled 8 years and up, but great for gifted kids much younger)

What's Gnu? Smart Mouth for the younger set, ages 4-8, how many words can be crafted when you only know two out of three letters?

Smart Mouth Stretch your vocabulary and quick thinking skills - great new addition! (or from Amazon or MindWare)

Word Sense take turns flipping letter tiles and racing to think up words that contain those letters. Be the first to correctly call out a word, and keep the tiles. Tiles and dice fit neatly into the travel case...
 

Word XChange A battle to the last word

A lightning-fast game that's a battle to make and keep words. First to spell out six words with letter tiles wins. Other players can steal words and make them their own. Keep spelling, stealing & spelling some more!  Or try Word XChange Jr.
 

Word Drop

It’s not who gets the last word but who gets the most words.  A cross between Scrabble and Connect Four, form as many words as possible going up, down, forward and backward.  But be careful: your opponent is watching and ready to steal your words!
 

You've Been Sentenced (3-10 players, ages 8+)

Using a unique word deck of pentagon shaped cards containing conjugations of funny words, famous names from throughout history, familiar places, and wild cards, players have to make grammatically correct and justifiable sentences. The real fun begins when players have to read their sentences out loud and explain what they mean to the rest of players. They form the jury and vote thumbs up or down on whether the sentence and justification stand and the points are scored...
   

Think A Gram answer: three degrees below zero!

Last updated January 20, 2010