Using a Wordlist

Last week's spelling list: Silent letters. How much do they remember?

A k followed by five letters. At least 23 possible words: kaftan, kaiser, karate, keeper, kennel, kernel, kettle, keypad, kiddie, kidnap, kidney, killer, kilter, kindle, kindly, kipper, kisser, kitbag, kitten, knaves, knight, knives and knotty.

None of these is wrong: it's just that only one of these words will solve the problem and any suggestion that fits is spelling practise.

Starting with vowels is often a good idea. Five points for suggesting killer and another five for kisser even though we knew i was not the right letter here.

No points for o, especially without a suggested word and we don't accept a phonetic spelling of country.

More good suggestions for words with ke and ka, but have they forgotten the list is Silent letters? Our score is dropping – we're losing fireworks.

Somebody suggests n.

This bring the possibilities down to just four words: knaves, knight, knives and knotty.

Generous five points given for creative ideas: kneesy, as in 'Musical chairs is a kneesy game.'

But we still lose a firework.

Consider adding kneesy to the Master Wordlist before sense prevails.

Finally, we find the word with no more losses.

We compare the word with the suggestions made during discovery which we had recorded in Notepad as we went along.

More points are given out for letter substitution suggestions giving us height, bright, blight and fright, but nobody thinks of weight.

Yet more points for knighted and knighting.

Ten points for: 'What did Sir Lancelot's squire say as he tucked him up in bed?'

'Night, night, knight.'

You had to be there.

A short firework display as a reward – only six left from the ten we started with.

A quick adding of team scores, then on to the next word.

Next week: Latin roots and other philological circumlocutions.