Rules

Every type of rule

The building blocks of every Venn-acular puzzle, with examples.

Every puzzle pairs two rules from a library of 101 rules. Each rule asks one simple question about a word. Here is every kind, with everyday words that fit.

Starts with…

35 rules about how a word begins: a single letter (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, V, W), any vowel, or a common opening blend (ST, CH, SH, TH, PR, BR, CR, GR, PL, SP, TR, FL). A starts with rule is always on the left circle.

Starts with B

• before
• bloom
• boil
• bottle
• butter

Starts with TH

• thaw
• thirty
• throw
• thug
• thyme

Ends with…

22 rules about how a word ends: a single letter (E, D, T, N, R, L, K, Y, H, M, P, A, G, O), any vowel, or a common ending (ING, ED, ER, LY, ION, NESS, FUL). An ends with rule is always on the right circle.

Ends with Y

• barley
• decoy
• destroy
• hasty
• zany

Ends with NESS

• business
• fairness
• illness
• kindness
• weakness

Contains…

33 rules that only care whether a letter or pair of letters appears anywhere in the word: single letters (B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, P, Q, R, T, V, W, X, Y, Z) and pairs (TH, CH, SH, OU, EA, AI, OO, EE, LL, SS, ER, IN, ST, CK).

Contains K

• bookcase
• fake
• meerkat
• quack
• skit

Contains OU

• amount
• bounce
• count
• spacious
• tourist

Letter patterns

Rules about the shape of a word rather than particular letters.

Has a double letter

• sassy
• seen
• still
• suggest
• teem

Every letter is different (no letter appears twice)

• bald
• country
• hack
• ribcage
• slob

Has no letter E

• funny
• glass
• husband
• stiff
• tour

Starts and ends with the same letter

• entire
• level
• nation
• rambler
• rear

Vowels

Rules that count the vowels A, E, I, O and U. (Y does not count as a vowel.)

Has 3 or more vowels

• excuse
• gazelle
• orange
• reality
• station

Has just one vowel

• cash
• flag
• knew
• pulp
• rang

Length

Rules about how many letters a word has: 3 or 4 letters, exactly 5, exactly 6, 7 or more, or 9 or more.

Has exactly 5 letters

• fifth
• lemon
• lever
• niece
• poise

Has 9 or more letters

How rules are paired

Two rules that answer the same question are never paired, because no word could fit both. A word cannot start with B and with C at the same time, and it cannot have exactly 5 letters and 7 or more. Every pairing is also checked against the everyday word list so that there are always enough words in the middle, and so that each circle has plenty of words of its own.

The planner never repeats a pair of rules within the three-year schedule and avoids reusing a rule that appeared in the last four days, so the board feels fresh every morning.

A few pairs, solved