Letter Boxed

Customs and Conventions for WordPlay Posts

The Letter Boxed puzzles always have at least one two-word solution, the "official solution" which is posted on the NYT web site the following day. It should go without saying, but Letter Boxers assume that others do not use any computer assistance to locate their solutions. There is no reward for being first; anybody who consistently posts the official solution very early will be noted and assumed to be cheating.

Letter Boxers who post on Word Play do so with thier own two-word solutions on the day of the puzzle. These can be quite difficult to find and there is often only one possible solution. Several unofficial conventions have become established for the format and contents of these posts. This web page is intended to codify these customs for reference.

  • Beginning a LETTER BOXED thread: If you have a two word solution to post, start by searching through the comments for an existing thread which should start with LETTER BOXED in all caps, followied by several blank lines. If there is no thread, start one following that convention. If there is a thread already, continue it with your solution using the format given below.

  • Dittos. There are no prizes and no proof so a statement of "same here" or "ditto", preferably with a time stamp, is a perfectly acceptable entry. If you have a different hint post it. If not, just skip the hint.

  • Solutions are expressed by the first and last letters of the word with the letter count in parentheses. The following convention has evolved. Using the words SQUEAMISH HORSERADISH an example, the posted solution should be

    S - H(9), H - H(11)


    The two letters designating each word are in caps. They are separated by spaces and a single dash. This seems to help get the solution past the automated filters. There are no spaces in the word-count number. The two words are separated by a comma.

  • The solution is followied by a hint. The hint can simply be two unrelated words like crossword clues, for example Overly fastidious, Tangy root. But it has also become customary to try to think of more phrases covering both words like "cannot stomach an equine root".

  • The clue should be followed by an approximate time entry. This is done primarily for competitive reaons because posts may be delayed by the Emus. The time of posting is not precise and can be rounded off to the closest quarter hour. The time entry establishees your precedence compared with others with the same entry. Time stamps are entered in the format @4:30 EDT. Time zone is important becaus Letter Boxers can be anywhere in the world.



    Letter Box jargon:
    SPOTCH. A spotch is a ridiculous word that nobody had heard of or can even find a reference to that is nevertheless accepted by the app..

    ANTISPOTCH: An antispotch is a perfectly good non-obscure word that is not accepted by the app but really should be.

    The above "rules" are not official and are simply intended to be a description of existing custom. You are free to post whatever you like. Address any comments, amendments, or arguments to Jack Aubert: jack@chezaubert.net

    For what it is worth, I would like to offer my personal solving strategy ant tips which people may or may not find helpful. The first thing I do is run through the 12 most common English letters: ETAIONSHRDLU to see what is missing. I then look for a few common sequences like TION, ING, OUGH to see if they are useable. If there is a Q there should always be a U so QU is equivalent to a single letter. I then look at the remaining letters to locate those that may be difficult to place and try to dispose of them. Difficult to place means that the letter is usually at the beginning or end of the word. This limits the ability to concatenate catenate the matching word. For example Y is usually at the end of a word, with or without an L, but there are only a few words that start with Y, most of them short. V is almost never at the end of a word so I avoid starting a word with it if I can. J is rarely at the end of a word and is most often followed buy an E or a U. If the puzzle contains a J i will start by trying to dispose of it. So my first steps will be to try to bury letters like J and V in the middle of the word leaving the beginnings and endings more open ended. If there is a C, I want to see it acompanied by a K or by an I so that I can termintate words in CK or IC.

    I have written a program in Python that uses a very extensive dictionary and will, in principle, find all acceptable words to a given box and then match up pairs that can be two-word solutions. I am not ready to spend the time and effort to run every puzzle through this program and curate or post answers, but will be glad to do so on request. I will also be glad to share the source code with anybody who wants to play with it or write an HTML front end.