Word games are a fun way to keep our minds sharp.
Whether you're an adult or a child, word puzzles, or any kind of puzzles for that matter, are recommended for helping with keeping cognitive skills in tune. Many adults enjoy a good crossword, phone app game, or card or board game. It probably pushes us mentally and keeps us thinking, improving our brain health. While there is no cornerstone research indicating that it's good for memory, it's always fun to do puzzles.
"The research so far has not found that participating in these various brain games alone will reduce your risk of dementia," Dr. Julie Brody-Magid, clinical director of the Memory Disorders Assessment Clinic at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital said, as per Harvard Health. "But they may help with improving select brain skills and can play an important role in maintaining overall brain health."
So, if you want to take a chance at improving brain skills, here are a bunch of word puzzles for you to solve:
1. What do the following words have in common?
Assess
Banana
Dresser
Grammar
Potato
Revive
Uneven
Voodoo
2. Find the five words that contain OL as a letter pair. Use the pool of letters given. What are the words?
**OL*, *OL***, **OL**, ***OL*, **OL***
Pool: A, A, C, C, D, E, E, E, E, F, G, H, I, I, J, N, R, T, V, W
3. It's time to behead words starting with "Qu." When you remove the first two letters (Qu), you will still have a valid word. The clues for the pair are given below. Example: British pound -> Part of the psyche
Answer: The words are Quid and Id.
Now solve for these clues.
a. Stop doing - That thing
b. Peculiar behavior - Annoy
c. Subatomic particle - Large boat
d. Unit of liquid measure - Product of creativity
e. Small game bird - To be unwell
f. Large feather; pen - Unwell; faulty
g. Nausea; uncomfortable - Simple
h. Misgivings; scruples - Donations to the poor
4. Guess the common phrase
You can bait a larger quantity of pests with the effort of bees than with the product of soured and fermented grapes.
5. Fill the blanks with the given letters and find the words.
Base Words:
--EA-, -OV-R, -I--O, T--AS--
Individual Letters:
P R H N D A E O E N M R V
How was that? How many do you think you got right? Read on to find out.
Answer key:
1. When you move the first letter to the end of the word, you get the same word when read backwards.
Assess, ssessa (read backwards, it is the same word)
2. WHOLE, GOLDEN, FROLIC, CAJOLE, VIOLATE.
3. Beheading the QU
a. Quit - It
b. Quirk - Irk
c. Quark - Ark
d. Quart - Art
e. Quail - Ail
f. Quill - Ill
g. Queasy - Easy
h. Qualms - Alms
4. You will attract more flies with honey than vinegar.
5. DREAM, HOVER, PIANO, TREASON
References:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/the-thinking-on-brain-games
Disclaimer : This article is for your entertainment / infotainment purposes.