US 4,055,348 AGranted

Word building game

OwnerPettersen B. Marzoni, Jr.inventor

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Abstract

A word building game using a chance device to display letters is disclosed. The chance device displays consonants only, and the players construct words by utilizing consonants displayed through the chance means in appropriate arrangement with any number and variety of vowels of their choice. The frequency of display through the chance device of any consonant with respect to other consonants is in direct and nearly exact ratio to the actual known frequencies of occurrence of the consonants in an extensive stock of words specially compiled from an authoritative listing of the words used most frequently in the vocabulary of a particular language.* In the preferred embodiment, a set of five regular icosahedral dice is used as the chance device, with the consonants on the faces of the dice being those of the English alphabet. Scoring of a constructed word is based both on its length (the total number of letters used) and on the number of displayed consonants employed in its construction. No differential scoring values are assigned to individual letters: all vowels ad consonants have an identical unitary value.

Claims3

Dependent claims

Game apparatus comprising a chance device having five chance elements, the chance device including means defining a plurality of indicia-bearing areas, each chance element having twenty indicia-bearing areas, a set of indicia characters having a distinct character for representing each consonant of the English alphabet, there being at least one indicia character on each of said discrete indicia-bearing areas as follows:

indicia representing the consonant R on 12% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant T on 11% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant N on 11% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant L on 9% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant S on 9% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant D on 9% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant C on 6% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant P on 5% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant G on 5% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant M on 5% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant H on 4% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant F on 3% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant B on 3% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant W on 2% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant V on 2% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant K on 2% of the indicia-bearing areas,
indicia representing the consonant X on 1% of the indicia-bearing areas,
and indicia representing the consonants J, Q and Z on 1% of the indicia-bearing areas.

15 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.