Word Games Based Upon Starting First Letters and Word Relationships

Abstract

A word game provides players with several starting first letters and one or more association categories, the association categories may include antonyms, homophones, hyponyms, synonyms and other word relationships. A player may begin to create a word set by deriving, finding, speaking or otherwise indicating a first word and a second word, on condition that the player generated words have starting first letters issued to the player and share a predefined association category. Disclosed word games may be played upon playing boards, with cards, upon electronic devices and other platforms.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of playing a word game comprising the steps of:
 a) providing a first letter and a second letter to one or more players;   b) providing the one or more players an association category for word sets; and   c) a player creating a word set, the word set comprising a first word created by the player starting with the first letter and a second word created by the same player starting with the second letter and the first and second words having a relationship comporting to the provided association category.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the provided association category is selected from the group comprising antonyms, homophones, hyponyms, word relationships and synonyms. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the first letter and the second letter are provided on a random basis. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the one or more players are provided with three or more letters. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  including the step of recording a successful construction of a word set. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  including the step of using playing cards having letters and randomly issuing playing cards to the one or more players. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  including the step of a issuing a plurality of personal playing cards to each of the one or more players and issuing a plurality of community cards. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  including the step of a player using one personal card and one or more community cards to create one or more word sets. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  including the steps of:
 a) placing a plurality of community markers upon a playing surface, with each community marker marked with a letter; 
 b) a player selecting a first community marker and a second community marker and creating a word set from the selected first and second community markers; and 
 c) the player placing the first community marker upon the second community marker or the player placing the second community marker upon the first community marker. 
 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  using a playing board and letter marked markers. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  using predefined symbols placed upon the playing board, the predefined symbols indicating association categories. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11  including the steps of placing letter marked markers upon the playing board to record the successful creation of a word set. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12  including the step of placing player markers upon the playing board to record the identity of a player who created a successful word set. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1  using an electronic game board and electronic game markers, the electronic game markers marked with letters. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  including the step of placing the electronic game markers upon the electronic game board to record the successful creation of a word set. 
     
     
         16 . A system for playing a word game, the system comprising:
 a) a playing board, the playing board comprising a plurality of blank spaces and a plurality of spaces marked to show open spaces and association category spaces;   b) a plurality of letter tiles, with a letter shown on each tile; and   c) one or more player markers, with each player marker having a unique indicia suitable for mapping to a player.   
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16  wherein each letter tile comprises a marking of a point value. 
     
     
         18 . A card game system for creating words sets having words comporting to an association category, the system comprising:
 a) a plurality of playing cards, each card having a back side substantially similar to the back side of every playing card;   b) the plurality of playing cards having a front side, with the front sides displaying a letter of the alphabet and displaying a point value;   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18  further comprising:
 a) instructions instructing one or more players to play a word game comprising the steps of: 
 b) providing a first letter and a second letter to one or more players; 
 c) providing the one or more players an association category for word sets; 
 d) a player from the plurality of players creating a word set, the word set comprising a first word created by the player starting with the first letter and a second word created by the same player starting with the second letter and the first and second words having a relationship comporting to the provided association category. 
 
     
     
         20 . The game system of  claim 18  further including one or more bonus match cards, the bonus match cards providing one or more association categories, a point multiplier and a letter to be used by a player to obtain bonus points.