Synonym Chains
| No. of Players: | 1+ |
| Type of Game: | written or spoken |
| What you need: | pen & paper or nothing |
Goal
To move from one word to another using synonyms.
How to play
This game can be played alone or with others. One player chooses a pair of words. The object is to think of a synonym for the first word, then a synonym for that word, and so on, until the second word in the original pair is reached. For some pairs of words, you may need only one synonym. For instance, you can get from company to solid via firm, since company and firm are synonyms and firm and solid are synonyms, although for different meanings of the word firm. The more interesting challenge is one where you need a chain of synonyms, which is often the case with words that are opposites, like rich and poor.
Example
Abe challenges himself with the opposites big and small. He discovers the following way to go from one to the other:
big–important–chief–first–elemental–primitive–lower–secondary–inessential–unimportant–paltry–small
In case you're wondering, the images under the title of this word game form a rebus puzzle:
SYNONYM + CHAIN + CHAIN + CHAIN = SYNONYM CHAINS
