Word golf

Word golf

Word golf (also called a word chain) is a game, a version of Word Ladders, in which one word is turned into another through a process of substituting single letters. A new English word must be formed each time a letter is replaced, and players score points according to the number of steps taken. As in regular golf, the player with the lowest score at the end of the game wins.

The game was popularized by Vladimir Nabokov, and is referred to in his masterpiece "Pale Fire" (1962) as a favorite pastime of the fictitious American poet John Shade. Shade's neighbour Charles Kinbote notes that some of his own records include "hate-love in three, lass-male in four, and live-dead in five (with 'lend' in the middle)."

Examples

In the index to "Pale Fire", Nabokov provides the following example for scoring LASS to MALE in four:

ee also

*Word game


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