Author Topic: grad  (Read 4083 times)

mkenuk

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grad
« on: April 17, 2016, 06:41:53 PM »
re the graduated game.

grad, which appears quite often in Chi, was played by 386 out of 509 players; that's more than 75% of those who took part.  Surely a word that is known and played by so many should be classed as common?

There has been some discussion in the forum recently about 'downgrading' to 'rare' words which are seen and played by very few players; but by the same token, shouldn't any word which is played, therefore known, by more than (say) 50% of players be, almost by definition, common?

MK 

anona

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Re: grad
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2016, 02:52:31 AM »
I probably played 'grad' because I usually do, but I don't know it as a word - I just know that Chi accepts it and it gives me a point.  I didn't even know what it meant although I guessed it's short for graduate. I wondered if it were an American abbreviation?

yelnats

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Re: grad
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2016, 07:14:07 AM »
I'd consider it well known in Australia as would be 'undergrad'

mkenuk

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Re: grad
« Reply #3 on: April 18, 2016, 09:29:36 AM »
COD defines 'grad' as 'n. informal term for graduate' . ('grad.' with a full stop / period is an abbreviation for 'gradient' and would not be allowed in Chi).

But my post is not really about whether the word 'grad' should or should not be allowed as a common word; I'm wondering why any word which is known and played by more than 75% of the players in a game should be classed as 'rare'.

MK

TRex

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Re: grad
« Reply #4 on: April 18, 2016, 09:43:59 AM »
And then there are some who, like me, don't play it because it isn't a common word.

Ozzyjack

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Re: grad
« Reply #5 on: April 18, 2016, 11:47:43 AM »
I'm wondering why any word which is known and played by more than 75% of the players in a game should be classed as 'rare'.

This begs the question of whether the  Rare and Common classification refers to the knowledge of the population of Chihuahua players, the general population of users of the English language in all its variations or that group of the general population who have an average level vocabulary.  To define any of these would take the wisdom of Solomon, and to field all the queries, the patience of Job.  Fortunately, Alan appears to have these qualities in spades.

I don't concern myself whether the words a common or rare but enter all those that I know, or think might be words, that I can decipher and let the system work it out.  It is rare, though, that when I look at the solution for all the words I missed, that I find common ones that I do not know but just didn't see them on the day.  For some reason I seem to be blind to acre,isle and rent but when they are there I enter with a clear conscience kinda and cred, which I don't consider to be words but know they will get me closer to the almost unreachable goal, for me, of a rosette.

However, I do enjoy the cut and thrust of the arguments about whether words are common or rare and particular Alan's expositions of the rationale of his decisions.
Regards, Jack

Les303

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Re: grad
« Reply #6 on: April 18, 2016, 12:12:58 PM »
I've picked up on a few quirks that , for me at least , have made playing Chi a little easier.
But just when i think i have it all worked out , another inconsistency will pop up.
So given that i really do not care about hit rates (anyone getting 100% must be cheating anyway  :)). & to keep the game as fun as possible , similar to Ozzyjack i've stopped worrying about what might be rare/common & simply try every possibility that comes to mind to get the highest score that my little brain can manage.
1 ; The word does not exist. (hit rate loses a point :'()
2 ; The word is classified as rare. ( score a point & one closer to your target  :D )
3 ; The word is classified as common (score a point & one closer to a rosette  ;D )
Anyway that's the world of Chi according to Les.
(Only joking of course about those players good enough to get 100%  :angel:)

TRex

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Re: grad
« Reply #7 on: April 18, 2016, 12:54:41 PM »
On the same puzzle (graduated) I encountered what strikes me as an inconsistency: gradate was rare, but gradated was common. Shouldn't they be the same?

Alan W

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Re: grad
« Reply #8 on: April 18, 2016, 09:38:02 PM »
On the question raised originally by MK of whether any word that 75% of players find can be considered rare:

One issue would be, how many of those people, like anona, have come to know that it is a "Chi word", without actually knowing it as a word? The idea of the common words is that they're very likely to be known by the type of people who might play Chihuahua, as opposed to being known by people who have actually been playing Chihuahua for years and years and have learned of the existence of all manner of weird and wonderful words.

In the case of grad, it is available to play quite often because its letters are all fairly common, so we can check whether the percentage finding the word has tended upwards over the years, as more players have noticed they can play it. Somewhat to my surprise, there is no such tendency. The graph attached to this post seems to show no overall tendency over the past 10-plus years. (The graph goes only up to the end of March, so does not include the puzzle that inspired MK's question.)

Grad was switched from common to rare in November 2009, but that didn't have any noticeable effect on how many people played it after that. (As far as I can recall there had been no discussion of the word - I had just concluded that it was a mainly American word.)
Alan Walker
Creator of Lexigame websites