Language

What these areas do

Language leans on a small network, mostly on the left side of the brain. Toward the front, in the frontal lobe, sits Broca’s area, long associated with putting words together and shaping them into speech. Further back, where the temporal lobe meets the parietal, sits Wernicke’s area, associated with understanding the words you hear and read. The two are joined by a bundle of fibers, and together they let you move smoothly between finding a word and making sense of one.

Where you use this

You use language thinking every time a word sits on the tip of your tongue and you go looking for it. It is there in choosing the right word for a card you are writing, in following a conversation where three people are talking at once, in reading a menu in dim light and making sense of it anyway. Most of it happens so quickly you never notice it, which is part of why it is satisfying to slow down and do it on purpose.

What your mind is doing in Wordity

When you turn one word into another a single letter at a time, you are holding a word in mind, testing small changes, and checking each one against everything you know about real words. It is a pleasant kind of mental tinkering. None of this is a test, and there is no score for your brain. It is a calm way to keep word-finding playful and active.

Play Wordity now