Zyzzyva: The Last Word in Word Study

Zyzzyva and Zyzzyva Lite are now available in the App Store!

Get Zyzzyva!: US $4.99. Includes Quiz, Search, and Judge functions; Cardbox Management; Dropbox Sync; Custom Lexicon Import; and Lexicon Symbols.

Get Zyzzyva Lite!: Free. Includes Search and Judge functions; Custom Lexicon Import; and Lexicon Symbols.

VERY IMPORTANT: If you will sync your quiz data between the iPhone app and desktop program: READ THIS TUTORIAL!

Screenshots
Credits
Questions

The Zyzzyva app is a useful tool for players of all word games. It allows you to practice anagramming with quizzes, check the validity of words instantly, and find words with pattern and anagram matching. The Zyzzyva desktop program has been used by top Scrabble® players for many years, and the Zyzzyva app brings a portion of its power to your iPhone!

Zyzzyva uses a spaced-repetition Cardbox system to help you improve your anagramming skills. With the Cardbox system, Zyzzyva quizzes you frequently on words that you have difficulty with, and quizzes you less frequently on words you can anagram easily. You can also sync your Cardbox quiz data between the iPhone app and the Zyzzyva desktop program. This is done by using Dropbox, a free service for keeping your files synchronized across devices (iOS 4+ only).

The app comes with several word lists, including OWL2 for North American club and tournament Scrabble®, OSPD4 for school Scrabble®, and WWF for playing Words With Friends. It also allows you to download your own custom word lists, and create special symbols to denote words that are specific to a particular word list.

The Zyzzyva app is already a powerful tool to improve your anagramming, and more great features are currently in the works. Look for many improvements coming in the near future!

If your favorite word list is not included with the app, you can add it as a custom word list by downloading it from a plain-text file. I've placed downloadable versions of all the existing Zyzzyva lexicons in this directory for your convenience:

http://zyzzyva.net/lexicons/

Zyzzyva Screenshots

(coming soon)

Zyzzyva Lite Screenshots

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Credits

Special thanks to the following people!

Executive Producers

Association of British Scrabble Players
North American SCRABBLE Players Association
WESPA
James Curley
Albert Hahn
Matthew Hodge
Arul Inthirarajah
Sam Kantimathi, SamTimer
Cheryl Melvin
Fred Oswald
Tobey Roland
Alan Sinclair
Kristen Thelen
Ben Withers

Producers

Australian Scrabble Players Association (Victoria) Inc.
Australian Scrabble Players Association Western Australia Inc.
Dorcas Alexander
Zana Anderson
Leesa Berahovich
Evan Berofsky
Graham Bonham
Arthur Braden
Laurie Cohen
Thomas Conrad
Ben Dweck
Max Dwyer
Becky Dyer
Janet Elliott
Lynda Finn
Jane & Jim Fischer
Barbara Floyd
Sue Gable
Scott Garner
Geoff Gibson
Marie Gier
Trevor Halsall
John Hamilton
Scott Hawkins
Karl Higby
Linda Hoggatt
Risa Horowitz
Stewart Houten
Cynthia Hughes
Dallas Johnson
Tina Totten King
Rachel Knapp
Jim Laris
Andrew Laurence
Mina Le
Chris Lipe
Rod MacNeil
Maliha Mahmood
Ed Martin
Chris May
Rose and David May
Gary Moss
Sandy Nang
Judy Newhouse
Damian O'Malley
Steve Perry
Scott Pianowski
Marilyn Pomeroy
Joan Rosenthal
Christopher Ross
Sherrie Saint John
Frederick Schneider
Puneet Sharma
Rebecca Slivka
Scott Smith
Mike Stevens
Shelley & Jason Ubeika
Linda Wancel
David Webb
Rodney Weis
Erika Werdal

Supporters

Stan Angrist
Richard Blakeway
Bets Brown
Jacob Cohen
Robin Daniel
Maureen Delgado
Diane Firstman
Kate Fukawa-Connelly
William Gallagher
Cornelia Guest
Stewart Holden
Ravee Joradol
David Lewis
Celine McCart
Mary Pastore
Mary Rhoades
Marut Siriwangso
Mark Smith
Flora Taylor
Kevin Turner
Dave Wiegand

Contributors

Julie Brice
Anand Buddhdev
Jason Carney
Jesse Day
Paul Dundas
Merran Dunlop
Carolyn Easter
Stefan Fatsis
Paul Gallen
David Gilmore
Neil Green
Steve Grob
George Gruner
Chris Hall
Chris Hawkins
Jeremy Hildebrand
Heidi and Mark Hoopes
Cecilia Huber
Nicky Huitson
Jo Ann Ingram
Harvey Lichtblau
Susan Lichtblau
George MacAulay
Paul May
Jean McArthur
Heather McCall
Kenneth McGinness
Megan McMahon
Danny Mc Mullan
Laura Moyer
Bríd Ní Bhriain
Trip Payne
Noelle Pease
GeneRawlins
James Rossiter
Chris Schneider
Rakesh Sharma
Stephanie Steele
Elizabeth Terry
Laura Thomley
Ulla Trappe, Germany
Andy Williams
Benjemin Wilson
William Woodward

Questions

How can I contact you?

Feel free to email me with any questions or comments at mthelen at gmail dot com.

How much does the Zyzzyva app cost?

The full Zyzzyva app is available for US $4.99 in the App Store. It includes Quiz, Search, and Judge functions; Cardbox Management; Dropbox Sync; Custom Lexicon Import; and Lexicon Symbols.

The Zyzzyva Lite app is available for free in the App Store. It includes Search and Judge functions; Custom Lexicon Import; and Lexicon Symbols.

Why doesn't the Zyzzyva app include Feature X?

I promised to complete the initial version of the Zyzzyva app by the end of 2011, and I did so. However, in meeting this deadline, some features had to remain temporarily unimplemented due to time constraints. Here is a list of some features that did not make it into the initial release. I plan to implement them all very soon. If Feature X is on this list, please be patient. It will be here soon.

Syncing of saved quiz files with the desktop
Database-centric searches like Probability Order and Playability Order
Word definitions
Movable tiles on the quiz screen (non-Flashcard Mode)
Landscape orientation
Support for lexicons with non-ASCII characters
Native iPad interface
Automatic sync, as opposed to the current manual sync
Nice UI improvements like pinch/stretch to zoom, etc.

How do I sync the Zyzzyva app with my desktop version of Zyzzyva?

The Zyzzyva app can sync quiz data, including cardbox data, with the desktop version of Zyzzyva using Dropbox. See this tutorial for more information about how to sync your Zyzzyva app with the desktop version of Zyzzyva.

Will improvements in the Zyzzyva app make it back into the desktop version of Zyzzyva?

In the course of writing the Zyzzyva app, I have made some fundamental improvements that will also be ported to the Zyzzyva desktop program. I plan for these improvements to be available in Zyzzyva 3.

Will you start charging for the desktop version of Zyzzyva now?

Nope, I plan for the desktop version of Zyzzyva to always be free.

Will the Zyzzyva app run on my Android, BlackBerry, or Palm device?

Unfortunately, no. At some time in the future, I may look into creating versions of Zyzzyva for those devices. For right now, the Zyzzyva app will only work on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Will you create a separate iPad app?

I would like to create an iPad-specific version of the Zyzzyva app in the near future. For now, you can run the iPhone app on the iPad in compatibility mode. The app will run in a small iPhone-sized window, and can be expanded to use the full screen by clicking the 2x button.

Should I tell everyone I know about this project?

Yes, please!

Copyright Notice

Copyright 2011 Boshvark Software, LLC. All rights reserved.

David Sinclair's DSActivityView class is used by the Zyzzyva apps. Copyright notice:

Created by David Sinclair on 2009-07-26. Copyright 2009-2011 Dejal Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.

Graham Toal and Richard Hooker's dawgutils package forms the basis of the word graph generation code in the Zyzzyva apps. Copyright notice:

Copyright 1989 Graham Toal & Richard Hooker

If you're interested in improving your Scrabble game, check out the Scrabble Player's Handbook, a free ebook written by a dozen of the best tournament players in the world!

If you find Zyzzyva useful, I would be very happy to receive a donation via PayPal, which you can do by clicking the button below. Thank you for your support!