Book review: Susie Dent reveals the worlds within words

I’ve always been curious about words. Not just by what they can do when strung into sentences and paragraphs, but as standalone little things in themselves. Individual bundles of meaning to be swapped around, played with and enjoyed.

Words that become puzzles are always popular, as evidenced by the online game Wordle becoming the feel-good tech success story of last year. A simple puzzle that’s enormously satisfying, Wordle’s genius was to blend just the right ...