Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind.
Maybe it was the word “Jot” that triggered it, but the first thing that came to mind when I saw today’s daily prompt was a word game called Jotto that I used to play as a kid with my sisters, friends, and my cousin. It was a fun mix of words and logic. Each player picks a secret word of five letters and writes it down privately. The object of the game is to correctly guess the other player’s word first.
Players take turns trying to guess the other player’s word. On a player’s turn, they guess some five-letter word, and the other player tells them how many letters in that guess match a unique letter in their secret word. For example, if the secret word is TODAY and the guess is OTHER, the T and the O in OTHER match a T and an O in TODAY, so the announced result is “2”. On the next turn, players reverse roles.
Players keep track on paper of each guess and result, crossing out letters of the alphabet that cannot appear in the opponent’s secret word. Eventually, one player has enough information to win by making a correct guess.
I know that there are a lot of people these days who play an online game called Wordle. I’ve never played it, but from what I’ve heard, it seems similar to Jotto. There’s a five letter secret word and players try to guess what that word is by guessing other five letter words. But with Wordle, after you guess a word, you get three big clues (which letters are in the correct position, correct letters in the wrong position, and letters that don’t feature at all). With Jotto you only get told how many letters in the guessed word are in secret word, but not whether they’re in the correct position.
I think I’ll interrupt my wife, who is working on her crossword puzzle and challenge her to a few games of Jotto.
This, That, and the Other 
That is almost like Wordle!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I play the online wordle most days and got the word in 3 today. I’ve been beaten a few times though. Haven’t heard of Jotto, but it would have been a good game to play with the kids. We used to get them to chose a 9 letter word from the paper……… then you had 2 minutes to make as many words as you could of 3 letters or more. Points were 1 for each word, 2 for each word they got that the other kids didn’t, 3 points for their longest word, and 5 points for each word they got that we adults didn’t. Prize was a dip in the lollipop jar.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds like fun!
LikeLike
The kids loved it and it as a way of encouraging them to read and spell.
LikeLiked by 1 person
sounds like a fun game indeed! I love word games!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t remember this game but it does sound like Wordle. I play most days – helps wake me up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember that game too. But Scrabble was our big word game. It still is.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Harder than Wordle, but sounds like you get as many chances as needed, while Wordle gives you only up to six.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Correct.
LikeLiked by 1 person