Word Ways was the first periodical devoted exclusively to word play, and has become the foremost publication in that field.[3][7] Lying "on the midpoint of a spectrum from popular magazine to scholarly journal",[5] 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[8] and unusually long words,[4][5][9][10][11] as well as book reviews, literature surveys, investigations into questionable logological claims, puzzles and quizzes, mnemonics[12] and a small measure of linguistically oriented fiction.[5][13]
Willard R. Espy discovered Word Ways in 1972, and eventually used material from several dozen articles in his Almanac of Words at Playanthologies.[9][14][15][16] 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.[17]
In the November 2020 issue, editor Jeremiah Farrell announced that the publication of Word Ways would be suspended.[18]
^ abcdEvans, Rod L. (2012). Tyrannosaurus Lex: The Marvelous Book of Palindromes, Anagrams, and Other Delightful and Outrageous Wordplay. London: Penguin Books. ISBN978-1-101-58863-5.
^ abJohnson, Dale D.; von Hoff Johnson, Bonnie; Schlichting, Kathleen (2004). "Logology: Word and language play". In Baumann, James F.; Kame'enui, Edward J. (eds.). Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice. Guildford Press. p. 180. ISBN978-1-57230-933-3.
