Editing Boggle (section)

==Rules==
[[File:Boggle_examples.svg|thumb|Three words found in a sample Boggle game:
<br />[[cresset|'''CRESSET''']] (and subwords such as CRESS and SET),
<br />[[chypre|'''CHYPRES''']] (plurals are allowed), and
<br />[[song|'''SONG''']] (extending to SONGS disallowed as it repeats the S)]]
One player begins the game by shaking a covered tray of 16 cubic dice, each with a different letter printed on each of its sides. The dice settle into a 4×4 tray so that only the top letter of each cube is visible. After they have settled into the tray, a three-minute [[sand timer]] is started and all players simultaneously begin the main phase of play.<ref>[http://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/boggle.pdf BOGGLE Game Instructions - Hasbro], Retrieved December 3, 2013</ref>

Each player searches for words that fit the following criteria:

* Words must be at least three letters in length.
* Each letter after the first must be a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal neighbor of the one before it.
* No individual letter cube may be used more than once in a word.
* No capitalized or hyphenated words are allowed.

Multiple forms of the same word are allowed, such as singular and plural forms and other derivations. Each player records all the words they find by writing on a private sheet of paper. After three minutes have elapsed, all players must immediately stop writing and the game enters the scoring phase.

In this, each player reads off their list of discovered words. If two or more players wrote the same word, it is removed from all players' lists. Any player may challenge the validity of a word, in which case a previously nominated [[dictionary]] is used to verify or refute it. Once all duplicates and invalid words have been eliminated, points are awarded based on the length of each remaining word in a player's list. The winner is the player whose point total is highest, with any ties typically broken by a count of long words.

One cube is printed with "Qu". This is because ''[[Q]]'' is nearly always followed by ''[[U]]'' in English words (see [[List of English words containing Q not followed by U|exceptions]]), and if there were a ''Q'' in ''Boggle'', it would be challenging to use if a ''U'' did not, by chance, appear next to it. For the purposes of scoring, ''Qu'' counts as two letters; for example, ''[[squid]]'' would score two points (for a five-letter word) despite being formed from a chain of only four cubes. Early versions of the game had a "Q" without the accompanying "u".

[[Merriam-Webster]] publishes the ''[[Official Scrabble Players Dictionary]]'', which is also suitable for ''Boggle''.<ref>By Dalia Col'n, [http://www.tampabay.com/features/games/board-silly-try-these-gaming-clubs/471274 Board silly? Try these gaming clubs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203100128/http://www.tampabay.com/features/games/board-silly-try-these-gaming-clubs/471274 |date=2013-12-03 }}, Tampa Bay Time, Retrieved December 3, 2013</ref> This dictionary includes all variant forms of words up to eight letters in length. A puzzle book entitled ''100 Boggle Puzzles (Improve Your Game)'' offering 100 game positions was published in the [[United Kingdom|UK]] in 2003 but is no longer in print.

{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center"
|-
! Word<br> length !! Points
|-
| 3, 4 || 1
|-
| 5 || 2
|-
| 6 || 3
|-
| 7 || 5
|-
| 8+ || 11
|}

Different versions of ''Boggle'' have varying distributions of letters. For example, a more modern version in the UK has easier letters, such as only one ''[[K]]'', but an older version (with a yellow box, from 1986) has two Ks and a generally more awkward letter distribution.

Using the sixteen cubes in a standard ''Boggle'' set, the list of [[longest words]] that can be formed includes ''[[wikt:inconsequentially|inconsequentially]]'', ''[[wikt:quadricentennial|quadricentennial]]s'', and ''[[wikt:sesquicentennials|sesquicentennials]]'', all seventeen-letter words made possible by ''q'' and ''u'' appearing on the same face of one cube.<ref name="bgedu"/>

Words within words are allowed, such as "mast" and "aster" within "master". Neither the cubes nor the board may be touched while the timer is running.