I've never seen this before, and it's happening now:

"Gaze into the Crystal Ball!

This hour's secret word begins with the letters aca
Letter 3 appears in the first half of the alphabet.
The last letter of the word appears in the first half of the alphabet.
The first four letters of the word match the first four letters in failed guesses zero times.

Your guess:
Guess!

We will check for a correct guess in -14 minutes.."

I had guessed earlier in the hour, and it won't allow me any more guesses. Checking in minus 14 minutes... An interesting glitch!



As it turned out:

"The word last hour was acathexia.

- an inability to retain bodily secretions

No one guessed it."

I may not have guessed "acathexia," but it would have been nice to have a chance to try...

Oh, and "Who's the Expert" simultaneously has been stuck on the same "Marketing" topic for over an hour...

Weird for both, which both seem to be functioning normally now. Not sure if there was some behind the scenes corrective action or if it was a one time burp, but it seems too coincidental for the two problems (Crystal Ball and Expert) not to be related. With Crystal Ball at least it was a word that likely wasn't guessed by anyone as their initial guess..and everyone was equally unable to pursue in the last 15 minutes. Expert I didnt check and see if any would-be winners got ousted by a latecomerin the extra hour of play. Hopefully not. If nothing else it will be a little odd for the specialized topic rotation to be shifted by one hour but it appears the damage was minimal

It does seem to have resolved itself in both places, now, namrewsna- and congratulations on being the first to win at the revived Crystal Ball (solubility)!

Thank you thank you Any win is good but it is always somehow just a tiny bit more gratifying when a frequently used guess finally pays off.

Hmmm odd, it appears that the game reset function hiccupped for an hour there and didn't reset for those 2 games.

The answer page hasn't really told me what the word means, has it? Off to a dictionary...



The word last hour was schtikl.

- a really little shtik; "have a shtikl cake"

No one guessed it.

The closest I've come is 'shtick' and it means 'piece'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Yiddish_origin

Try this set of definitions, with the example used by Crystal Ball (and whenever it comes up in Word Wizard):

http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/shtik

I am more familiar with the first definitions, widely used in show business circles, and only know the one used here from this site.

TY

A shtickl pickle. It comes with our upbringing. But as it's from Hebrew writing you can spell it any way you like.

PROBLEM RESOLVED.... original post deleted (I hope...)

Thanks for the quick responses flopsymopsy and postie!

Kate, if you go to the Crystal Ball page and click on the link to the 'Top 100' (bottom right) it will show all the words you have been recorded as winning at the top of the list.

Kate, the 'You are correct' does not pop up if you won in a blind guess before the last 15 minutes of the game. It only pops up if you win after the first 45 minutes.

Thanks flopsymopsy, that did the trick, I almost missed it right up at the top (I only have 2 wins).
It turns out that I must have been having a "senior's moment, the word was variegation (not variegated), which is 11 letters, so not eligible for the Crystal pyramid.

Thanks for the info Postie, good to know for future reference.

Now that we all know I have a useless memory, I will see if I can delete the original post, in case I have sent someone on a wild goose chase....

While I'm here, does anyone know if both British and American spellings are used in the Crystal Ball game?

No need to delete your original posts, in fact that's generally frowned upon; it's unlikely to send others on a wild goose chase, especially as there were two short answers right underneath. What we have now are answers without a question and that makes no sense at all. Plus it's possible that someone else would have the same question as you, in which case this thread would save them the trouble of asking it again (and save others the trouble of answering it again). If a mod/admin thinks a question should be deleted they'll do it, otherwise it's best to leave well alone.

Glad your word counted, anyway.

Yes, both versions come up regularly. Words like specialise and specialize and color and colour to give just a couple of examples. You can guarantee that whichever spelling you try, the game will have chosen the other one...

Eleven letter word lengths are accepted.

edit: The game details say that words between 4 and 12 letters long are accepted. I have seen 4 letter words win but not 12 letter. Maybe the wording of that bit of detail needs fixing such as" "Words containing 4 and up to 11 letters are valid submissions."

Well I have won on several 12 letter words - stubbornness, bewilderment, megalomaniac just to mention a few.

Acceleration was the word just a few hours ago

My error then on the 11, sorry. But the concept of between 4 and 12 means lengths of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. 'Between' does not include the boundaries.

A suggestion to improve this game detail might be to state: "We accept words which have lengths of from four(4) to twelve(12) letters."

"Between" can be used as a range inclusive of the bounds...

"Pick a number between 1 and 10", a common expression, has always meant 1-10, not 2-9

I think it is fairly clear, especially since your entry fails and is rejected if it is too long or too short, and while you have noticed 12 letter words tend to be less common, you will not often if ever see a streak of 10 hours or 24 winners (what is currently displayed in the backlog) without a four letter word.

Just between you and me, I understand the wording and the intent perfectly.

It is evident by posting(s) above that not all are so fortunate to read between the lines.