Etymologic! games Online Etymology Dictionary

It’s billed as the toughest word game on the web.

In this etymology game you’ll be presented with 10 randomly selected etymology (word origin) or word definition puzzles to solve; in each case the word or phrase is highlighted in bold, and a number of possible answers will be presented. You need to choose the correct answer to score a point for that question. Beware! The false answers will often also seem quite plausible, and some of the true answers are hard to believe, but we have documentation!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the word etymology comes from the Greek word ‘etymos’, which means real, or true, and the -ology ending indicates that it’s the study of, or science of. Put them together and you get the study or science of the real or true. Impressive, eh?

We came across this challenging brainteaser when one of the players in Wordlab’s new and improved Wordboard asked if we knew of “any good web site resources to find the meanings and origins of words?”

We mentioned the Online Etymology Dictionary, of course, but should have noted The Word Spy and World Wide Words, as well as Etymologic! Exciting tools for cunning linguists. Batteries not included.