Front Hooking Z - July 5

Inspiration for these blogs often comes from game situations. My opponent started with the word ZINES for 48 points. My initial response only scored 34 points, playing TAJ across the front to make AZINES. However a couple of turns later I was lucky enough to be able to extend back to the triple word score by playing DIAZINES for 54 points.

That game intrigued me enough to do a little research. There are only 4 words of 5 letters starting with Z where a single letter can be placed in front to make a 6 letter word. They are:

ZYMES - Which can be extended to AZYMES

ZONAL - Which can be extended to AZONAL

ZONES - Which can be extended to OZONES

ZINES - Which can be extended to both AZINES and EZINES

Interestingly if a game was started with any of those 4 words it is possible to extend all of them back to the triple word square

ZYMES only has one possibility - ISOZYMES

ZONAL has two possibilities - SUBZONAL and TRIZONAL

However ZONES and ZINES have many words to remember:

CALZONES - An Italian turnover with a savoury filling

CANZONES - An Italian song resembling a madrigal

ECOZONES - Regional ecosystems

ENDZONES - The scoring zones in American Football

SUBZONES - Subdivisions of a zone

TRIZONES - Countries formed of three zones

WARZONES - Regions of armed conflict

BENZINES - Mixtures of hydrocarbons from petroleum

DIAZINES - Organic compounds of oxygen and nitrogen

FANZINES - Magazines for fans

OXAZINES - Heterocyclic chemical compounds

RHIZINES - Multicellular rootlike structures of lichen

WEBZINES - Magazines published on the internet

Given the topic, this time i will wish you:

Zappy Scrabbling

Patrick