How to Play

You can think of this game as a one-word writing challenge. Rather than just a single word, you’re being given a list of synonyms to choose your one word from.

Put another way, Thesaurus Game is a creativity prompt offered frequently with no deadlines for responses.

But if you just want to think of it as a game, it’s one of those games without winners or losers, and the rules of play are fairly basic:

  1. The title of a post is the word
  2. Pick a synonym for the word
    • Either pick one of the synonyms provided in the post
    • Or look up the word in a thesaurus and pick a synonym there
  3. In a comment tell us which synonym you’ve chosen
  4. Then add anything you want about the synonym
    • Describe why you chose it
    • Write a story, poem or essay inspired by the synonym
    • Or respond with pretty much anything you have created
    • Photographs, paintings, videos
    • Anything which can be related to the synonym you’ve chosen
  5. You can also write a blog post in response
    • Post a link to your blog post in the comment
    • Link from your blog post to the game post you’re playing
    • Use the tag #ThesaurusGame so we can find you

The conditions of play

  • We are here to celebrate words and language
  • Play nice — Zero tolerance for the following:
    • Don’t be mean, or use hate speech, or bully other players
    • No graphic sex or violence or excessive use of foul language
    • Dark themes are OK. Promoting violence or criminal behaviour is not
    • This is emphatically not a forum for your partisan political agenda or conspiracy theory
  • Be generous
  • Constructive criticism is welcome; personal attacks are not
  • It’s OK to be an adult, just remember there are kids in the audience too
  • Have fun

I hope you’ll also play the game with the synonyms other players provide. Just follow the rules above, using their synonym as the word. Post your new synonym as a reply to their comment.

I can’t promise I’ll be able to “play” with every player out there, but I will respond to your comments as often as opportunity allows.

Also, every now and again I’ll pick especially good responses and post them as “guest posts”. I’ll ask the player before doing that, just in case you’d prefer not to.
 
 
 
Psssst…. one last thing. But keep this one on the down-low. If you really, really hate all the available synonyms, or can’t find inspiration in any of them, try the antonyms. 😉