Hiya folks, new to the site. I know I haven't posted other than a couple PM's before, but I was reminded of one of my minor fascinations tonight, and thought I'd share.

See, every once in a while, I get it in my head to look for "suites" of words that differ only by prefix, say "apply, comply, imply, reply". The limits I put on this varies, but generally I look for the longest common root (say, a point a letter of the English root), bonus if the root itself is a word (double total score), another bonus for each word with an obscure/obsolete/archaic usage note (double score on that word); never worked out how to add it to the score, but also consider it a bonus if the words don't carry related meanings in modern common usage (iffy to determine).

So, in the example set "apply, comply, imply, reply", the root is "ply" is 3 points & I have four variants in the suite for 12 points, 24 total since the root itself is a word in the dictionary. One of my favorite suites is "assuetude, consuetude, desuetude, mansuetude"; think I've forgotten a couple, but the suite I gave had a root of 7 letters, each doubled for being obsolete/archaic/obscure, and has four variants for a total 56 points. (And given they mean "habit, familiarity, disuse, and mannerliness", I'm tempted to add a bonus like doubling for their apparent separations in meaning.)

Is this something you folks might be interested in?

Welcome to the site, KB, and to the games forum. I understand the suites of words, and that sounds like fun . . . but the point system somewhat baffles me. Can we just play for the joy of playing?

apply, comply, imply, reply . . .

supply?