Bingola dictionaries

There are currently five Bingola dictionaries. The full dictionary has over 9,000 words, with the senior dictionary having most of those words. The junior dictionaries are divided into four grades, ranging from about 600 words to 2,700 words.

If an adult group includes new players, organisers should start with a Grade 1 dictionary first, then move into higher grades. If a new player could find it overwhelming to start with the Senior dictionary.

Senior dictionary

The senior dictionary includes 9,000 commonly used words of all types in English. The dictionary is suitable for both adults, high school students and senior primary school students. The list includes common first names and very famous places.

Each word requires only the 26 letters of the alphabet. There are no apostrophes or hyphens needed.

Most of the words in Bingola are root words, which are simple or unmodified words. Although words in English can be modified to turn nouns into verbs or adjectives into adverbs, most of these words will not appear in the dictionary. This however is more like a guideline. For various practical reasons both a root word and a modified word may appear in the dictionary. Occasionally only the modified word appears.

Vulgar and slang words are excluded from all dictionaries. Words that describe serious crimes, diseases, death or traumas are mostly excluded. We try to make sure anyone going through a difficult experience is not directly reminded of that difficulty during the game. If this dictionary was on television, we'd rate the senior dictionary as PG, and the graded dictionaries as G.

Spelling

Internationally agreed English spelling is used in the standard version of Bingola. Any regional dictionaries used will be clearly marked.

Quite a few words sound exactly the same (homophones) or sound very similar, even though they’re spelt differently. For example, "you" and "ewe" has the same pronunciation, but contain completely different letters. The Bingola word list identifies homophones and near homophones in each wordlist. These words will be spelt out after they are announced.

Whether a particular spelling of a word is internationally accepted might be doubted for some people in some regions. Some regions have two variant spellings for particular words in regular use. Bingola is not intended to be an authority on words or spar debate. Such words should also be spelt out. If necessary, the organiser can acknowledge the validity of any alternative spelling.

Bingola is not intended as a spelling test. If a player asks for a word to be spelt out, then the caller should promptly do so.

Senior dictionary examples

Here is a sample of the 9,000 word full Bingola dictionary:

Junior dictionaries

The junior dictionaries are suitable for primary school students or any young child who knows the alphabet. The junior dictionary is also suitable for any group where it's useful to avoid complex words.

There are four grades of junior dictionary. These approximate grades 1 to 4 of primary school. Grade 1 is suitable for children who have just learnt the alphabet. If students become familiar with the words in their grade, they may find it suitable to jump up a grade or two.

The junior dictionaries include up to 2,700 of the most commonly used and easily understood words in English with internationally agreed spelling. Unlike the regular dictionary, the graded junior lists do not include first names, places or proper nouns.

Long words are avoided, unless they are especially common to younger children. All words are suitable for children and have no adult themes. If this dictionary was a movie or television program, it would be rated G.

Here is a sample of the Grade 1 Bingola dictionary:

Here is a sample of words first appearing in the Grade 2 Bingola dictionary:

Here is a sample of words first appearing in the Grade 3 Bingola dictionary:

Here is a sample of words appearing in the Grade 4 Bingola dictionary:

It is not expected that children at a particular grade know the meaning of every word in the dictionary, nor do they need to know how to spell every word. It is the decision of the organiser just how much to challenge each student, by the speed of play and deciding how many words are spelt out.

Ideally, children playing Bingola should feel the game is decided upon their skill in matching, rather than their ability to spell words. Children should be encouraged to speak up and ask questions about the meaning of words and how to spell them.

If you come up against a problem in any dictionary, don't hesitate to let us know. This includes spelling and identifying homophones.

More topics

Tips and tricks

Bingola is easy to set up and play, but there are a few organiser tips and tricks to help make each game go smoothly. Click here to review pens v daubers, easy ways to hand out tickets or play multiple tickets.

Tie breaking

About one in ten games may end in a tie. This is normal, however the organiser can use one of the tie breaking methods to select a winner. The winner could be who shouts "Bingola" first, who matches the next word or who wins a coin-toss.

Quality and fixing faults

Bingola is handmade in Australia. Some colours may vary from images of the game. We're pretty good at fixing damage and faults before any deliveries to customers, however if you do find a fault, do not hesitate to let us know. We can easily send replacement elements on request.

Bingola basics

Return to the main setup and playing guide.