Fowl Words
'The Internet is full of games to help you enrich your word power.'

If you want to enrich your word power, Suzanne Elvidge has ten word games to educate and entertain

All games are free downloads or free to play.

Some games require your browser to have a 'plug in' for Shockwave, Flash or Java.

To play a game, simply click on its name. If you are a parent, we advise you to try the game and the site it's on first before letting your kids play them, to make sure you're happy. (And, don't forget, you can also find great games for kids in our own Global Gang area)

When downloading games from the Internet, don't forget to keep your anti-virus and anti-spyware software up to date.

When I was a kid I used to love the It Pays To Enrich Your Word Power quizzes in the Reader’s Digest. The Internet is full of games to help you enrich your own personal word power, whether it pays or not!

Word Pyramids
Try to fill the pyramid with words. Starting off with two random letters, add one letter each time to create a new word.

Hangman
Guess the word by selecting letters – if you get them wrong, it adds another line to the drawing. Macabre little game when you think about it! There is another version without the hangman, and there are lots more word games from Oxford.

Fowl Words
Practice your typing – type the words that appear on the eggs to stop them smashing.

Language Games
At Language Games, you can play games in different languages, from word searches in Spanish to hangman in Italian.

Latter Lasso
Letter Lasso is a word search with a difference – you find one word at a time, and the quicker you find it the more points you get.

Lost in Translation
This is entirely pointless and huge fun. The program translates an English phrase back and forth between five (or eight) different languages. ‘Word games’ ends up as ‘The time of the version of the word’;

‘Christian Aid is a UK and Ireland based charity that funds projects in some of the world's poorest countries’ becomes ‘The sustenations of the Christianity are label of England and the actions of Ireland fix therefore that to understood to the deficient country the some plants in the following love of the world for the order’.

Hexagon Word Puzzle
Crosswords – but hexagons rather than squares

Fit The Words
Fit the words into the grid, with the same words across and down.

Cryptic Crosswords
I wish I could do cryptic crosswords, but if you can… type the answers into the grid. The answers are available about a week after the crossword is first shown. Or download a cryptic crossword from the Surefish site.

Word Morphs
Change one letter in the first word to form a new word, and repeat until you get to the last word. This is hard

Hope your word power feels enriched!

• Other games
• surefish.co.uk culture section index