Unusual Words

Purpose

This exercise can be used after lunch break as a energiser or whenever delegates feel tired or overwhelmed with the contents of the course. This is designed as a fun exercise to engage delegates in a friendly and competitive game.

Objective

Guess the meaning of unusual words.

Setup

• Split delegates into two groups (Team 1 and team 2). Give a different set of unusual words with their definitions to each group, Example: List 1: Agraffe (The wire that holds cork in a champagne bottle), Inaniloquent (Speaking foolishly) Tachyphagia (Fast eating).
• Each team then has to come up with two false definitions for each word in their list. Each group is then presented with one word and its three definitions (one true and two false) and team members of the other group have to guess which one is the true definition of the word.

Example:

Agraffe:

• The wire that holds cork in a champagne bottle (True definition)
• A person who never laughs (False definition made up by team 1)
• The person who looks young for his age (False definition made up by team 1)

Things you need

• Pen and papers
• Whiteboard/ Flipchart
• For a list of unusual words visit: http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/unuwords.htm

Timing

Explaining the test: 5 minutes.

Activity: 15 minutes

Group feedback: 5 minutes.

Variation

You can use name of the cities instead of unusual words and delegates have to guess each city belongs to which country.