Words from Words

Words from Words starts with one word and asks how many others are hiding inside it. You are given a set of letters, and the aim is to create as many different words as possible from them. It sounds modest until you see the numbers the game itself quotes: a plain word like example holds 29 smaller words, maverick holds 71, and chalkboard contains as many as 142.

That is the appeal. A long source word is a pool of letters, and every rearrangement you try either produces a real word or does not. Finding the first handful is easy; finding the last few means thinking about short words, unusual combinations and forms you would never use in conversation.

The final question in the description, whether you can solve everything, sets the real challenge. Clearing a word completely is a test of vocabulary and patience, which makes it a good fit for players who like to keep chipping away at a puzzle until nothing is left.

1. Read the letters of the source word.
2. Form a word using only those letters.
3. Keep looking for different words until you run out of ideas.
4. Try to uncover every word the source contains.

Work through the letters systematically. Pick two or three as a starting cluster, list every word they begin, then move on to the next cluster.