In the Dictionary Game “Dictum,” Guess the Next Bold-Faced Headword after a Given Word

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Paradin. We’re joined by our quiz guy, John Chaneski. Hi, John.

Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha. I’m back again.

Got some quizzes, I hope.

I do. I have one right here.

Dictum is one of my favorite word games in my book, Super Party Games, Fun and Original Ideas for Ten or More.

Where can you get that book? My house. It’s out of print.

I’m waiting for the film to come out.

Now, dictum is called dictum because if you look up the word dictionary in the dictionary, dictum is the very next word.

So the idea of dictum is that I’ll give you a word. You have to give me the closest, bold-faced main dictionary entry after it.

The head words, the bolded head words.

Oh, gracious sakes.

And Merriam-Webster’s 11th collegiate, which I have here in front of me.

I also have here in front of me the 10 words following each word.

The closer you get to the key word, the better.

Oh, so it’s like kitchen pennies.

Okay.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay.

For example, if I gave you the word dragoon, you might say drake.

Now, that’s pretty good, but that’s only worth two points.

The word dragster is better.

It’s worth eight points.

But the entry drag queen is the closest entry worth ten points.

Okay.

Okay.

Wow.

The one that appears most closely behind the word that you give us.

Right.

Most closely after.

No, we’re not actually keeping score of points, but we’ll see how you guys do.

Grant and Martha, head to head.

Here we go.

Okay.

The first word is contrary.

Contrast.

Ooh.

Contrast?

Is that the word you’re going for?

Yes.

I’m going for contra.

No, that would be later.

I mean, that would be earlier.

Contrast is good.

Contrast is worth 10 points.

It is the next word.

Very good.

Can you get one more out of the next 10?

What do you think?

Well, contrastive, but I don’t know if that’s a head word.

Yeah, contrastive.

That’s nine points.

Nicely done for 19 points.

I’ll give you the next ones.

We have contrasty, which means, like in photos, it has too much contrast.

Contravene, contravention, contretemps, contribute, contribution, contributory, and contrite.

Nice.

Okay.

Any of those would have done very well.

Here’s your next one.

Ready?

Emasculate.

How about embarrass?

Yes, embarrass.

Embarrass.

Very good.

Very well done.

That’s four points.

Very good.

So there’s more.

There’s some further up.

Four points.

The 10-point word is embalm.

Oh, good.

Oh, and embark.

Embank.

Embankment, Embarcadero, Embargo, Embarc, and you got Embarrass, Embarrassingly, and Embarrassment.

That’s not bad, guys.

Here we go.

Here’s the next one.

Ready?

Mausoleum.

Mausoleum.

I probably don’t have to spell it for the benefit of many of the listeners, but I will.

M-A-U-S-O-L-E-U-M.

Mausoleum.

Maven.

Mauve.

How about Mauve?

Mauve is 10.

Oh, nice.

Maven is 9.

Nicely done.

First and second one.

Very good.

Maverick.

Maverick is eight points.

That’s the next one.

You got the first three in a row.

Nicely done.

Very good.

Okay, let’s keep going then.

Mavis.

Mavis is the next word.

That’s number seven.

What’s a Mavis?

It’s a kind of bird.

Oh, nice.

Yes, it is.

Yeah.

Are we up to Maul or M-A-W?

Maul is number five.

You skipped one.

You skipped.

Hang on to M-A-V.

We did Maverick.

We did Maven.

You skipped a rather obscure word.

I’ll give it to you.

Okay.

What is it?

It’s mavourneen.

Spell it?

Oh, yeah.

M-A-V-O-U-R-N-E-E-N.

What is it?

Something Arabic.

Mavourneen, my darling.

Yeah, in Irish, right?

Mavourneen in Irish, yes.

And the last five are, you got maw, mawkish, max, maxi, and maxilla.

Hey, you know what?

You guys did fantastic.

You got lots and lots of points there.

Fascinating quiz.

Really.

It’s quite just really challenging.

Thanks, John.

I really appreciate it.

Yeah, thanks a bunch.

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