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  1. sudoku love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A puzzle in which a grid consisting of several regions is to be filled with numbers so that every row, column, and region contains only one instance of each number. The most common format is a grid of nine rows and columns that are divided into nine smaller regions of three rows and three columns into which the numbers 1 through 9 must be placed.

Wiktionary

  1. n. games, puzzles A type of puzzle whose completion requires each of typically nine rows and columns and each of as many usually square subregions to contain, without duplication, 1 up to 9 or the grid dimension.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a number puzzle in which the numbers 1 through 9 must be placed into a grid of cells so that each row or column contains only one of each number

Etymologies

  1. Japanese 数独 (sūdoku), numbers singly (Wiktionary)
  2. Japanese suudoku, contraction of suu(ji wa) doku(shin ni kagiru), the numbers must be unmarried (that is, occur singly). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “For everybody who wants to try out something new in sudoku, try shendoku, using the sudoku rules but playing two people, one against the other, like battleshipps.”

    Sudoku Godfather

  • “Logic games are popular in Japan largely due to the work of Nikoli, which was founded 27 years ago, but sudoku is the only one known abroad.”

    Archive 2007-06-01

  • “So I will post two links a day, one to the daily killer, and one to an interactive plain sudoku on the same site (as you can't get an interactive killer free on that site).”

    sudoku

  • “Today's Times killer sudoku is a real killer, I only managed to put in three "2" s today.”

    sudoku

  • “Though the name, sudoku, is Japanese, the puzzle itself was invented long ago in Switzerland.”

    2005 June » Japundit Blog

  • “Print, play and solve word sudoku to learn English.”

    We Blog A Lot

  • “Microsoft says it's added "nearly 100" titles, courtesy of its Microsoft Games division, but many searches I tried ( "sudoku," "checkers," "Risk") didn't pan out.”

    The Washington Post: Faster Forward: Bing adds music, videos, games

  • “I keep hearing about something called "sudoku" that seems to be the new macarena or something.”

    Archive 2006-02-01

  • “Also I'm seriously caught up in this new craze called 'sudoku'.”

    Archive 2005-05-01

  • “A search for "sudoku" on SourceForge. net yields more than 300 projects, so why use”

    SourceForge Community Blog

Show 10 more examples...

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synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. Number Place

hypernyms (4)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. puzzle
  1. mystifier
  1. puzzler
  1. teaser

same context (21)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. three-time
  2. 4th
  3. jig-saw
  4. seed-spitting
  1. parkcity
  2. cutting-out
  3. holdout
  4. epostal
  1. flooble
  2. jigsaw
  3. roadmap
  4. crossword
  1. negotiations'
  2. one-candidate
  3. pie-eating
  4. lit
  1. algebraical
  2. interscholastic
  3. demons'
  4. tree-planting
  1. back-to-back

tags (10)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. game
  2. number
  1. OUP_woty_2005
  2. logic
  1. fad
  2. 2000s
  1. trademark
  2. Nikoli
  1. Maki Kaji
  2. japan

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Wordmap

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Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘sudoku’.

Comments

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  • qroqqa It's taken me this long to find out what the word comes from. It's a contraction suu-doku "single digits" of the phrase suuzi-wa dokusin-ni kagiru "the digits are restricted to single" ("digit-TOPIC single-TO restrict" – with dokusin meaning "single" as in "unmarried", a little oddly).

    It began as an American puzzle called Number Place; a Japanese company later issued it as Sudoku, a trade mark in Japan, where it is generically known as nanpure, a contraction of the English name. Jun 3, 2009

  • sonofgroucho Excellent! Jan 27, 2008

  • sionnach the president tries his hand at sudoku Jan 27, 2008

  • uselessness I like Sudoku. Not that it's the greatest thing ever, but it's a fun way to pass the time when you're bored.. Nov 6, 2007

  • sonofgroucho You may have a point there! Nov 5, 2007

  • kewpid She probably feels the same way about Wordie :P Nov 5, 2007

  • sonofgroucho My wife is addicted to this. I regard it as The Spawn of the Devil. Nov 4, 2007

  • mollusque A distraction from Wordie. Nov 4, 2007

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‘sudoku’ has been looked up 1505 times, added to 15 lists, commented on 8 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.