Lexicon (card game)

For other uses, see Lexicon (disambiguation).

Lexicon

Master card from 1933 edition
Other names	Lex, Lexicon with Tiles, Lexikon, Crossword Lexicon, Script
Designers	David Whitelaw
Publishers	Waddingtons
Publication	1932 (1932)
Players	2–4; more with an additional deck
Setup time	2 minutes
Skills	Vocabulary, spelling

Lexicon is a word game for 2 to 4 players published as a shedding card game.

Publication history

Lexicon was created by David Whitelaw in 1932 and originally published by Waddingtons. After a poor launch for an initial small edition as a market test, Waddingtons upgraded the packaging and increased the price, and by late 1932 were selling thousands of units per day in stationery shops. A section in the rulebook was titled "How to arrange a Lexicon drive" for the organisation and execution of a party or tournament based on Lexicon.

By 1934, the game was being sold internationally. In March 1934, proceeds from a game in Australia were donated towards children's health care. In the United States, it was distributed by Parker Brothers as Crossword Lexicon. In 1938, George Parker stated that of all games sold by the company, the demand for Lexicon was only exceeded by that of regular playing cards.

Early rulebooks distributed with the game contained instructions for 23 games that could be played by 2 to 4 players with the deck cards. Certain copies came with a 1936 competition slip wherein £1,000 was offered in cash prizes. Several subsequent versions have been released.

In 1983, Waddingtons organised the Lexicon Golden Jubilee Weekend to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the game. It was hosted at the Victoria Hotel in Nottingham with various Lexicon-themed games, including "team Lexicon, Lexicon criss-cross, Lexicon clock patience, and individual games", as well as a dinner with alphabet soup, a lecture by the author of A History of Waddingtons, and a prize presentation event.

Waddingtons was purchased by Hasbro in 1994, which later sold Lexicon to Winning Moves.

Gameplay

Each player is dealt ten cards from a pool of 52, each depicting a letter and a point value. Two packs of cards are used for more than 5 players. The letter distribution was originally four each of the vowels 'A', 'E', and 'I', three each of the vowels 'O' and 'U' and the consonants 'H', 'L', 'R', 'S', 'T', and 'W', and one each of the other letters and the Master card.

On their turn, a player may lay down a complete word with their letters, extend a word already played, or discard one of their cards and draw one from the top of the draw or discard piles. The player may also choose to exchange one or more cards with those forming a word in play, so long as the exchange results in a complete word.

The object is for a player to eliminate all cards from their hand. When a player has no cards left in their hand, the round ends and the other players each tally the point value of the cards they hold. A player may challenge a word as being non-existent or mis-spelt. A successful challenge reduces the challenger's accumulated points by 10, and an unsuccessful one increases it by 10. When a player has accumulated 100 penalty points over any number of rounds, they are eliminated from the game, and the last player remaining is the winner.

Reception

An entry in a 1934 article in The Sydney Mail stated that the cards "are packed in amusing little boxes looking like pocket dictionaries". In 1938, the game was promoted by Jane Froman on her radio programme Radio Row.

In a 1973 review, Richard Sharp described it as "durable game" owing to its simplicity, as players can learn its rules quickly and games are generally short.

In its catalogue description, the Victoria and Albert Museum state that Lexicon is "the best known of the more sophisticated spelling card games" published during the 1920s and 1930s.

Reviews

• Games & Puzzles #31

Further reading

• Watson, Victor (2008). The Waddingtons Story. Northern Heritage Publications. ISBN 9781906600365.

External links

• Lexicon at BoardGameGeek