Squint: 020 Paperback – February 17, 2026

Squint is a word game which is played with a combination of (A) permutations of the alphabet, (B) Scrabble's letter rates, and (C) this book series. Stick around while I lead up to squint's gameplay.There are 26! permutations of the alphabet, and, since any one permutation in particular is as likely a specimen as any other, I am entitled to take the easy way out and use ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ itself, here, for the sake of illustration.Catch the word "no" spelled out in an unbroken sequence: ...NO.... Well, that was easy.Catch the word "it" spelled out in a broken sequence: ...I...T.... That one, maybe not so much.My premise is that - as the sought-after spellings lengthen and lengthen some more - you have to figuratively squint your eyes harder and harder in order to spot such as the latter variety of catchwords.And by "squint" I mean to scan the respective permutations looking for any and all words of a given length spelled out in broken sequences.The following empirical data, about specifically the seven-letter variety of catchwords embedded in permutations of the alphabet, are the fruit of my study of a random selection of a million such permutations.It turns out that seven-letter catchwords (and up) are few and far between.For example, I found no seven-letter catchwords at all - neither broken ones nor unbroken ones - in 620,589 of my 1,000,000 samples: KTELRMVJNBYOFCXSIUQGWHZDPA.Moreover, I found but a single seven-letter catchword in 207,734 of my 1,000,000 samples: MJVIYUORXKWLTZNADPSBGEHFQC voltage.Furthermore, I found a total of two seven-letter catchwords in 82,687 of my 1,000,000 samples: ZBKTGCOAVWPLQNFIJHMDYRSEUX bonfire confide.On the one hand, I found a total of only sixteen seven-letter-catchwords spelled out in unbroken sequences. It seems that the species is not only rare, but practically nonexistent.On the other hand, ever longer and longer catchwords spelled out in unbroken sequences practically jump right out at you: SPQZKFJXCDUAVOWINGTEHYBRLM AVOWING fainter jointer painter pointer scanter sponger squinty suavity swinger.Play squint with the aid of this book series.Each volume holds almost five thousand numbered squint-word puzzles and twice as many solutions.In the front of each book the squint-word puzzles are presented in fill-in-the-blank-slots format.In the middle of each book the catchword solutions to the respective squint-word puzzles are presented in alphabetical catchword order - for solitaire play.In the back of each book the catchword solutions to the respective squint-word puzzles are presented in high-to-low order of Scrabble-like catchword ratings - for competitive play.Solitaire play ought to be obvious: fill in the ten (or more) blank slots provided for the as many seven-letter catchwords scattered throughout each of the respective permutations.Competitive play envisions multiple players taking turns in a round-robin fashion and either (A) passing their turn or (B) using their turn to (1) fill in a blank slot with a different catchword and (2) jot down their new catchword.A player wins such a competition by having contributed the highest-rated catchword. Ties are broken on the basis of alphabetical order within rating. Read more