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Words

Word Discovery Tool

This is an amazing program. The deeper you look the more tantalizing it becomes. Journalists, writers, teachers and the just plain curious should try this.

Do you ever find yourself stuck for words? Used with a little skill and intuition Words supplies inspiration. From simple patterns this tool supplies word and word-pair matches.

The clever part is the way matches are ranked. Millions of web pages were scoured for word relevance and frequency. So the most common words and pairings rise to the top.

The Words program is free to download and use until 31 December 2007. It is quite large at 23MB so start downloading now before reading the rest of this article while that happens.

Download

Easy To Use

Ivysim Words is so much more than a tool for compiling and solving crosswords, though it is an excellent aid for word puzzling. Its long word list (over 4 million entries) was gathered and distilled over many months of web page browsing. Given just one or two letters in a pair of words this program provides a list of the most probable matches. For example:

    g????  ???????

This pattern says: Two words, first word 5 letters beginning with G. Second word 7 letters. Question marks indicate single unknown letters. Asterisks may also be used to indicate zero or more unknown letters.

So what is the answer to g???? ??????? Clue: This program came from there. Have you worked out the answer yet? If not then Words will show you.

How Do You Spell?

There's the correct way to spell a word. There's also the way most people spell the word. How should you spell that river in America? You might be sure of this much:

    MIS*I  *

Words leaves no doubt that it should be double-S, double-S, double-P. Interestingly, in at number 8 is the common misspelling.

  1  MISSISSIPPI
  2  MISSOURI
  3  MISRI
  4  MISSONI
  5  MISUARI
  6  MISCOCI
  7  MISTRI
  8  MISSISSIPI
  9  MISSI
 10  MISI

Who's On Top?

    MR  *

Remember, results are ranked by the number of times they appear on web pages. This pattern prompts Words to tell us which misters get the most mentions. Here are the results:

More than 100 Results:

  1  MR BLAIR
  2  MR HOWARD
  3  MR BUSH
  4  MR BROWN
  5  MR CLARKE
  6  MR CAMERON
  7  MR BLUNKETT
  8  MR BLAIRS
  9  MR JUSTICE
 10  MR COSTELLO
 11  MR SHARON
 12  MR DOWNER
 13  MR KERRY
 14  MR KENNEDY
 15  MR BEAZLEY
 16  MR STRAW
 17  MR PRESCOTT
 18  MR REID
 19  MR BUSHS
 20  MR ABBAS

Why is Mr Bush down in 3rd place? Probably because he is more commonly titled President. Let's check with Ivysim Words:

    PRESIDENT  *

More than 100 Results:

  1  PRESIDENT OF
  2  PRESIDENT BUSH
  3  PRESIDENT GEORGE
  4  PRESIDENT AND
  5  PRESIDENT BUSHS
  6  PRESIDENT TO
  7  PRESIDENT SAID
  8  PRESIDENT IN
  9  PRESIDENT PERVEZ
 10  PRESIDENT MAHMOUD
 11  PRESIDENT DICK
 12  PRESIDENT VLADIMIR
 13  PRESIDENT JACQUES
 14  PRESIDENT FOR
 15  PRESIDENT HAS
 16  PRESIDENT MUSHARRAF

Who is the Top Tom?

    Tom  *

More than 100 Results:

  1  TOM CRUISE
  2  TOM DELAY
  3  TOM BROKAW
  4  TOM VAN
  5  TOM HANKS
  6  TOM AND
  7  TOM RIDGE
  8  TOM BRENNAN
  9  TOM BRADY
 10  TOM SANDERS
 11  TOM CRUISES
 12  TOM JONES
 13  TOM DASCHLE
 14  TOM COSTELLO
 15  TOM GOGUEN
 16  TOM SIETSEMA
 17  TOM SNEDDON
 18  TOM FOX
 19  TOM ENGELHARDT
 20  TOM HUNTER

Looking For A Good Verb

There are many clever ways of teasing out useful word lists. If you know the word you're looking for ends with ing then pick a suitable adverb. Now find a partner for it.

    *ING  UP

More than 100 Results:

  1  SETTING UP
  2  PICKING UP
  3  COMING UP
  4  GIVING UP
  5  GROWING UP
  6  LEADING UP
  7  OPENING UP
  8  GOING UP
  9  STEPPING UP
 10  GEARING UP
 11  TAKING UP
 12  CLEANING UP
 13  BUILDING UP
 14  SIGNING UP
 15  LINING UP
 16  HOLDING UP
 17  MAKING UP
 18  STANDING UP
 19  CATCHING UP
 20  TURNING UP

Gloomy Reportage

News websites provide large amounts of original content. They repeat each other too. News stories have a strong influence on the word list. What kind of aircraft is always in the news for the worst reasons?

    helicopter  *

  1  HELICOPTER CRASH
  2  HELICOPTER WAS
  3  HELICOPTER TO
  4  HELICOPTER CRASHES
  5  HELICOPTER GUNSHIPS
  6  HELICOPTER CRASHED
  7  HELICOPTER AND
  8  HELICOPTER FROM
  9  HELICOPTER IN
 10  HELICOPTER FIRED

It gets worse. Try this one:

    CHILD  *

More than 100 Results:

  1  CHILD WELFARE
  2  CHILD ABUSE
  3  CHILD PORN
  4  CHILD SEX
  5  CHILD CARE
  6  CHILD AND
  7  CHILD MOLESTATION
  8  CHILD IN
  9  CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
 10  CHILD SUPPORT
 11  CHILD PROTECTION
 12  CHILD IS
 13  CHILD TO
 14  CHILD WAS
 15  CHILD POVERTY
 16  CHILD LEFT
 17  CHILD SOLDIERS
 18  CHILD LABOUR
 19  CHILD OF
 20  CHILD WHO

The included word list is sorted by frequency. If you need detailed reports with numbers and dates then please call. We can supply regular reports tracking trends in news and current affairs.

Most Talked About . . .

. . . holiday destinations? Where should you visit while you still can? Try this one:

    *  ISLANDS

More than 100 Results:

  1  VIRGIN ISLANDS
  2  SOLOMON ISLANDS
  3  CAYMAN ISLANDS
  4  FALKLAND ISLANDS
  5  MARSHALL ISLANDS
  6  MARIANA ISLANDS
  7  FAROE ISLANDS
  8  COOK ISLANDS
  9  PACIFIC ISLANDS
 10  CHANNEL ISLANDS
 11  COCOS ISLANDS
 12  FIJI ISLANDS
 13  CAICOS ISLANDS
 14  FUTUNA ISLANDS
 15  OUTLYING ISLANDS
 16  MAYEN ISLANDS
 17  MCDONALD ISLANDS
 18  SANDWICH ISLANDS
 19  DONALD ISLANDS
 20  PITCAIRN ISLANDS

Crossword Puzzles

Ivysim Words offers crossword compilers lots of power. Remaining blanks have to fit crossing words. Two-worded answers must make sense and be commonly recognised word-pairs.

Crossword solvers may feel using a computer program is unworthy cheating. However, never finishing one is dispiriting. Words also has a teaching and thinking role.

Here is an example from last Saturday's Daily Telegraph prize cryptic crossword:

    "Girl, one with personal assistant goes east, leaving islands (9)"

Well, you might know that Girl is a hint that the word begins with the letters GAL. Try GAL?????? and the solution is number two on the list.

You might know that personal assistant is a clue for the letters PA and could guess the position or might have already crossed three down to get the position of letter P. Try ????pa??? and the correct solution is number three on the list.

More cryptic but, goes east, leaving gives the letters GOS. Try ??????GOS and the solution is number one in a list of ten.

Perhaps the cleverest leap of imagination would be to realise that the 9 letter answer is probably paired with the word ISLANDS. Try ????????? ISLANDS and the correct solution is number 2 in a list of 13.

You have probably worked out the answer but play around with Words anyway. It should have downloaded by now (six minutes on a typical 1MB broadband connection).

There are many cunning ways to use this tool. You'll discover your own powerful techniques through trial and error.

Feedback

At Ivybridge Simulation we would like to know how interesting and/or useful you find the word discovery tool.

• Was it easy to use?
• What extra features would be useful?
• Which interesting ways did you find to use it?
• Anything else?

Please include WORDS in the subject line of emails to get your message through the spam filter.

There is a profanity filter (on by default) and the most offensive content is already excluded. If you should find entries that you think the profanity filter has missed then please let us know.

Licence And Copyright

Feel free to redistribute the program to friends and colleagues. The free licence for work and personal use expires on 31 December 2007. The program will remind you of this every time you start it. If you are still finding the program useful after that time then please come back to upgrade. The program and word lists remain the copyright of Ivysim.