8th December 2019 Game: Some Stats

[Calilasseia]

Found this interesting situation when playing the game on 8th December, from the 10-letter Profanity puzzle:


Topiary: listed as common: 63 players found it.

Tarn: listed as rare: 163 players found it.

Rota: listed as rare: 173 players found it.

Troy: listed as rare: 131 players found it.

Prion: listed as rare: 70 players found it.

Tarpon: listed as rare: 54 players found it.


Anyone else found purportedly 'common' words that are less frequently found by the players than various 'rare' words?

[mkenuk]

Happens in most games.
For example 355 from 617 (57.5%) played neath (classified 'rare') in yesterday's heartburn game, more than played such common words as haunt and unearth.
Meanwhile urethra which was classed as 'common' was played by 159 (26.7%).

I don't think you can go by number of hits alone. Some words are more difficult to spot, despite being well-known,
For example only 56 (from 284, less than 20%) played fiord in the recent firebombed 10-letter game; I doubt very much if there is a single Chi player who doesn't know fiord or its alternative spelling fjord. They just didn't see it, that's all.

[Jacki]

As T-Rex says, "If you miss the word, then kick yourself when you see the solution, it's a common word." I've missed HEMPEN and PHONEME in last nights ten letter COMPREHEND word. I wouldn't have got them in a million years. So I'm not kicking myself, yes I'm struggling to wonder why they are classed common, but will live and learn in the Chi world.

[mkenuk]

Recently I was tutoring the daughter of a Thai friend who is in her final year at school.
The topic in her text-book was 'prefixes and suffixes' and the way they are used to form English words. 
One of the suffixes was -en meaning 'made of'.

Very common examples are wooden, golden and leaden.
Oaken and earthen are slightly less common, but still well-known.
 Then, right at the end of the list, was hempen, which COD labels archaic!

My degree is in English Language so phoneme is as common to me as a simple medical term would be to a doctor or a nurse.
 I'm not surprised that it is unfamiliar to some solvers, however.

[Jacki]

Probably most solvers would be more accurate, but I bow to one of Chi's most respected players.