Playing Alastair

When playing Alastair Richards you can rely on him to play something to stretch your vocabulary.

This weekend he had the letters AGMILNX. Most people would be happy getting a good score from the X somewhere, but Alastair found another A on the board for MALAXING. I challenged that although I knew MALAX and MALAXATE. That second word made me think MALAX might be a noun rather than a verb. However, as almost always happens when you challenge Alastair, he just got an extra 5 points.

The only good use i could put that challenge to was as inspiration for a blog on 4 and 5 letter words that contain AAX.

AXAL

Pertaining to an axis.

TAXA

A plural of TAXON which is a unit of scientific classification. TAXONS is also allowed

ADDAX

A large African antelope with curled horns

ATAXY

A loss of muscular co-ordination. Also ATAXIA

AXIAL

Pertaining to an axis

AXMAN

A man who uses an axe. Also AXEMAN

GALAX

A heathlike evergreen plant of South-Western USA

HAPAX

A word that only appears once. That seemed a little weird so I researched it a little further. It means appears only once in the works of a particular author. e.g. William Shakespeare only mentions the poison HEBENON only once in all his works, so that makes it a Shakespearian hapax

MALAX

To soften by kneading

PANAX

A type of tree from which ginseng is sourced. It grows in Eastern Russia, North-Eastern China and on the Korean peninsula

XOANA

The plural of XOANON which is a primitive statue

Looking back at this list I have just realised that the only one which is a verb is MALAX. Damn, damn, damn! That feels so unlucky. But when you have as good a memory as Alastair it really isn't much about luck

Happy Scrabbling Patrick