Unlike other types of games that will get you spending time and money for no good reason, word games have a wide range of benefits. Time spent playing word games is time well spent, and this is among the many reasons these games are popular all over the world. In addition to being fun and entertaining, they’re also a great way to blow off some steam, relax and unwind. While also being an effective tool to help improve one’s grammar, research has also shown that word games have a plethora of mental and overall health benefits. Without further ado, here are the top three-word games adults can enjoy along with the several benefits of playing these word games.
Top 3 Word Games for Adults
1. Scrabble
This one is perhaps the best word game you can find out there. It can be played by two or more players where the main mission is to create words on the square board from 7 tiles of letters provided. Each word created earns you a certain number of points, which may depend on how many letters you use, which letters are used, and the squares these letters or words are created on. Even though it can get challenging and mind-boggling at times, it’s IQ-boosting, super fun, and entertaining. Scrabble is suitable for both adults and kids, a great game to play with friends and amongst family members.
2. Words with Friends
Unlike the classic board games, Words with Friends comes as an app that you can download to your smartphone. Just like scrabble, it can be played by two or more players competing to form words on the virtual board from a set of letter tiles.
3. Upwords
Played by two or more players, this is like the 3D version of Scrabble, in which you’re allowed to stack tiles over existing ones on the board to form new words. However, the board, which is smaller than the classic Scrabble board lacks the double/triple score boxes.
Playing Word Games: The Benefits
It Improves Your Vocabulary
One of the biggest benefits of playing word games is that it can give a big boost to your vocabulary over time. Each and every match in a word game is always an opportunity to learn a word that you didn’t know before, along with its meaning and how it’s used in a sentence. The more you play word games, the more your strength in spelling and grammar improves.
What’s more, the best thing about word games these days is that there are tools you can use to make it easier and more fun. When playing word games like Scrabble, Text Twist, Words with Friends, the guys at FastWordUnscrambler.com say that a word/letter unscrambler can help you stay ahead of your competition and earn maximum points from each turn. The game becomes more entertaining as you score more and learn new words to improve your vocabulary from each encounter. Especially for editors, journalists, and writers, it can be an amazing way to take your career forward as you have fun.
Promotes Happy Moods
Well, needless to reiterate, word games are fun and entertaining, especially when you’re learning new words and winning. According to studies, playing games like these promotes an increase in dopamine production, one of the “feel-good” neurotransmitters secreted in the brain. This happy and satisfactory feeling is especially felt when you manage to solve a word puzzle that perhaps you’d found a bit challenging at first.
Provides Stress Relief
When you’re happier, you’ll seldom stress out. Now, due to the ability to trigger happy moods, playing word games is also an excellent tool to beat the various stresses and tensions of life. And considering the many harmful effects stress can have on your body, word games can thus be an effective tool in promoting your overall health.
Concentration and Cognitive Boost
It is said that the brain is just like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the better it gets in performing its various functions. Just like many other types of puzzles, playing these kind of games regularly can exercise your brain and make it sharper. In addition to boosting your cognitive ability and problem-solving skills, this can also make your brain better at focusing and concentrating on the tasks at hand while boosting your attention span. This comes from the fact that word games can get challenging, stimulating, and exciting at the same time. Over time, regularly participating in word games can also have a huge positive impact on your creativity.
Improves Your Social Skills
Last but not least, word games are also an effective tool in boosting your social skills. This is because more often than not, you’ll play against friends, family members, or even complete strangers. When you spend time together competing and trying to solve word puzzles, it’s always an opportunity to bond and strengthen your relationships or even make new lasting ones.
There you have it. From the few pointers above, you have more than enough reasons to take up word games as your spare time activity. You will love it even more if you know the rules and use helpful tools like the ones mentioned in this article.