Word chain facts for kids
Word chain, also known as grab on behind, last and first, alpha and omega, and the name game, is a word game in which players come up with words that begin with the letter or letters that the previous word ended with. A category of words is usually chosen, there is a time limit such as five seconds, and words may not be repeated in the same game. The version of the game in which cities are used is called geography.
Time
An example chain for food would be: Soup - Peas - Sugar - Rice.
The game is used as a tool for teaching English as a second language and as a car game.
Related games
A similar Japanese game is Shiritori, in which the word must begin with the last mora, or kana, of the previous word. It includes a rule for loss: words ending with N may not be used since the kana is never used in the beginning of words. The game Antakshari (ant means end, akshar means letter), played in India, Pakistan and Nepal also involves chaining, but with verses of movie songs (usually Bollywood songs). In Russia a game similar to the Word chain is called Words (Russian: слова). In French-speaking countries, the game Marabout involves the last syllable.
Writing poetry following the same principle is called capping verses. Various other variants exist, such as Ancient Greek skolion.
Examples from popular culture
- In the European Version of Tomodachi Life one of the in-game events is Word Game. It is the English version of Shiritori Tournament, and the North American localisation lacks it and replaced it with a similar event called Rap Battle, which was included in the European localisation alongside Word Chain.
See also
In Spanish: Palabras encadenadas para niños
