The Holy Grail of word grids is the elusive ten-square.  Squares as a class are the overwhelming focus of word grid study.  But squares are only a special case of the generalized word grid universe

McManus, Christopher

Digital Commons @ Butler University

234 WORD SQUARES? NO, OBLONGS! CHRISTOPHER McMA U Silver Spring, Maryland The Holy Grail of word grids is the elusive ten-square. Squares as a class are the overwhelming focus of word grid study. But squares are only a special case of the generalized word grid • universe. Besides squares such as the 5x5 and 8x8 and lOx 1 0 varieties, there are many more word grids of non-square dimensions, such as 5x3 or 8x5 or lOx 12. In the present article, 1 will examine only the most elongated of word grids. These are grids of ten or more letters across, and only two or three letters down . The longer candidate words for this study were all found as lower case entries in an electronic spell-checker based on Stedman's Medical Dictionary (26th Edition). Medical dictionaries offer a rich trove of longer words. The number of words of length nine in the spell-checker are 23,275, of length ) 0 are 17,212, of length 11 are 12,673; of length 12 are 9,062; of length ) 3 are 6,263; and of length 14 are 3,923. Much larger word troves could have been achieved by merging several dictionaries, and by adding word phrases and proper nouns into the mix, but 1 wanted to see what results could be obtained from a single source. For two- and three-letter words, the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (OSPD), 3rd Edition, was used as the exclusive source. The OSPD provided 96 words of length two and 973 of length three. The number of word grids found of size 2x9, 2x 1 0, 2x 11 , 2x 12, 2x 13 and 2x 14 were, respectively, 4467, 854, 167, 16, I and I. For 3x I 0, 3x 11 and 3x 12 word grids, the corresponding numbers were 80972, 51 10, 187 and 7. 1. Two Letters Down A few of my favorite nx2 word grids are: H 0 NOR A B L E A NOR E X I A S POI N SET T I A I N T U I T ION S U N I MOD A LIT Y SAT Y ROM A N I A E L E MEN TAL MAR I H U A N A ABO MIN A B L E SEN A TOR I A L -HIE R 0 P HOB I A I N FER lOR I T Y The sixteen 12x2 grids found from the candidate words included E MOT ION A LIT Y HEM 0 S P 0 RID I A U N I MAG I NAB L E M UTA ROT A T ION 235 The nl I '2 and I . 2 grid und in lhi · Iud ~ ere, re pc Ii e l . P S E U DOS TOM A T A ION TOP H 0 RES I S 2, hr Co' It rs Down U RET E R 0 UTE R I E SED I MET 0 ~ E T E R fe~ n.'3 word grids wh e d wn-\\ rd are prim ril comm n are E LAB 0 RAT E GEE RAT 0 R GAD GET E E R A R S E I CAL o U P L I CAT E S TAM P E 0 E D PAR A M E D I C S A A LOG I CAL LAM P 0 0 E R Y R E CAP P A B L E EVALUA DEPEND T ION E N T S PAP E R B A C K S A GAL 0 R R H E A PER MEA TIN G I R REP A R A B L E REI T ERA T ION E MBA N K MEN T S Among the 12 3 grids Ii und in the Iud are S E R 0 P 0 SIT I V E P R o L I FER A A N C EST RES 3. Conclusion T E S S E S o SOC I A L A V 0 I D A PATTER A S T R A G A A C I E R C E E D L A R ATE o o x y G E ATE 0 A B L E A T I 0 ERADIC o M I o E P E o E T S C E L E BRA TOR o V A RIO C E L E B E MAD DEE 0 ERA D I CAT I G A URI C U L A R I A T E M PER ATE L Y E NCO M PAS S E S LEU K 0 R R H E A L K ERA TOM E TRY U N FAT M 0 R P H HOM A B L E P H 0 o LOG I E S ENE S I S TOG As I ha e ugge led, word grid form a c ntinuum from the ery el ngat d to the I ' quare. Much more tudy remain 10 be done among Ie - longat d ord grid (nx4, nx . fi r example) and among near- quare (9 7, 10 8 or 10 9, for e 'ample). dditiona" .• larger and combined word Ii t can be combed to find 14x2, 13 J and larg r w rd grid f the ry elongated variety. The pre ent article i not a final report, but an in italion t broad a nue f further reh. 

Word Squares?  No, oblongs!

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Word Squares? No, oblongs!

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