Lexicant

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Lexicant is a paper and pencil word game for two players. A letter is written on a sheet of paper, and each player takes turns adding a letter either to the beginning or the end of this ever-growing word stem. The first player to create a word loses.

Lexicant is popular because of its inherent simplicity. It requires no preparation and nothing more than paper and pencil. It can even be played orally.

1 Bluffing and challenging
2 Strategy
3 Example games
4 External links

[edit] Bluffing and challenging

At any turn a player is expected to have one or more "reserve words" in mind which could be formed from the exact word-stem in play. If the letters in play were "MICAB", for example, valid reserve words would include "AMICABLE", "AMICABILITY" and "SEMICABALISTIC". However, a player can opt to bluff on their turn - that is, they can add a letter to the word-stem without actually having a reserve word in mind. Bluffing is almost always done as a last resort, though some players may use bluffs strategically to force their opponents into untenable positions. If a player feels their opponent has played a bluff and has no reserve word in mind, they may lodge a challenge at any time before the next turn is played. The recipient of the challenge must then provide a valid reserve word which contains the word-stem in play. If they are able to do so, the challenged player wins the game. If they can not provide a reserve word, the challenger wins the game.

[edit] Strategy

Lexicant requires a strong vocabulary, but that alone is not generally enough to truly master the game. Familiarity with commonly-used suffixes, prefixes, and Pluralization is a must, as these can be used to extend word-stems into larger and larger formations before a word must finally be created. But simply extending the length of a word won't guarantee a win. A player must also employ simple strategies to ensure that the final word contains the proper number of letters required for them to win: an even number if they made the first move, or an odd number if they played the second move.

[edit] Example games

Two example games could be played as follows:

Example 1	Example 2
A AT ATI PATI IPATI IPATIO CIPATIO ICIPATIO TICIPATIO NTICIPATIO NTICIPATION ANTICIPATION	V IV TIV ITIV SITIV NSITIV NSITIVI NSITIVIT ENSITIVIT ENSITIVITI ENSITIVITIE SENSITIVITIE OSENSITIVITIE OSENSITIVITIES POSENSITIVITIES YPOSENSITIVITIES HYPOSENSITIVITIES