astronomy

Word Ways

Word Ways is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Word Ways rather than just read about it. In short: Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics is a quarterly magazine on recreational linguistics, logology and word play. It was established by Dmitri Borgmann in 1968 at the behest of Martin Gardner.

Key takeaways

Word Ways belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Word Ways to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Word Ways from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics is a quarterly magazine on recreational linguistics, logology and word play. It was established by Dmitri Borgmann in 1968 at the behest of Martin Gardner. Howard Bergerson took over as editor-in-chief for 1969, but stepped down when Greenwood Periodicals dropped the publication. A. Ross Eckler Jr., a statistician at Bell Labs, became editor until 2006, when he was succeeded by Jeremiah Farrell (Butler University). Word Ways was the first periodical devoted exclusively to word play, and has become the foremost publication in that field. Lying "on the midpoint of a spectrum from popular magazine to scholarly journal", it publishes articles on various linguistic oddities and creative use of language. This includes research into and demonstrations of anagrams, pangrams, lipograms, tautonyms, univocalics, word ladders, palindromes and unusually long words, as well as book reviews, literature surveys, investigations into questionable logological claims, puzzles and quizzes, mnemonics and a small measure of linguistically oriented fiction. Willard R. Espy discovered Word Ways in 1972, and eventually used material from several dozen articles in his Almanac of Words at Play anthologies. The first of these included complete subscription details for Word Ways, which generated so many inquiries that for decades the publishers were reluctant to change their address. In the November 2020 issue, editor Jeremiah Farrell announced that the publication of Word Ways would be suspended, but will hopefully resume in the future.

Current editorial board Editor: Jeremiah Farrell, Butler University Lacey Echols, Butler University Kirstin L. Ellsworth, South Pasadena, California Barbara Howes, Butler University Katie Mohr, Wiley Publishing Company David D. Wright, Hangzhou, China Electronic Journal Publishing Assistant: Laina Ridenour, Butler University

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Word Ways

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Word Ways claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Word Ways before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Word Ways ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Word Ways

In research: Word Ways appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Word Ways in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Word Ways is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Butler University, Literary magazines published in the United States, Magazines established in 1968, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Word Ways outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Word Ways in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Word Ways means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Word Ways out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Word Ways in simple terms?

Why does Word Ways matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Word Ways?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Word Ways.