New word lists

[philshem]

The current word list is from Scrabble (TWL06) and contains 180k words. It's too many, and the NYTimes is also using a smaller word list with obscure words removed.

It'd be great to

• get a simpler word list

• create a simple download tool for users to use their own, which would then be multi-language support

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BUT, rather than shorten the word list, it would be cool to make a puzzle difficulty rating. this way, a user could ask for easy and get one with many words with high-frequencies. Same for the pangrams, since some users play a puzzle just to find the pangram.

[hackerb9]

Currently we're using the SCOWL.35 dictionary which is reasonably small, but SCOWL has the nice benefit of including larger dictionaries for those with fancier vocabularies. While it is not hard to generate custom sized dictionaries using the script I wrote (mkscowl), I'm beginning to think it might actually be more enjoyable for people if open-spelling-bee scaled dynamically.

Words which are not in the small dictionary can be checked in larger dictionaries (and in regional variations, such as British and Australian) and an appropriate message could be shown. Something like,

Nice! "BEAU" is not one of the words in the small (SCOWL.35) dictionary, but it's in the medium (SCOWL.50) dictionary, so you get bonus points!

or

Wow! "LUMMOX" is the third word you've found that is too peculiar for the small (SCOWL.35) dictionary. Let's increase the challenge: there are seven more words from the medium (SCOWL.50) dictionary — including another pangram! — that you haven't found yet. Player words: 22 of 37+10 (46%).

or

Well... you're right, "FULK" is a real word, but it's so insanely rare (SCOWL.95) that it's more likely someone would type it by guessing than actually know it. Want to prove your prowess? There are over two dozen words equally abstruse as "fulk" in this puzzle; if you can find three of them, you'll be the first person ever to earn the INSANE ERUDITION award.