Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A puzzle in which a grid consisting of several regions is to be filled with numbers so that every row, column, and region contains only one instance of each number. The most common format is a grid of nine rows and columns that are divided into nine smaller regions of three rows and three columns into which the numbers 1 through 9 must be placed.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun games, puzzles A type of
puzzle whose completion requires each of typically nine rows and columns and each of as many usually square subregions to contain, without duplication, 1 up to 9 or the grid dimension.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a number puzzle in which the numbers 1 through 9 must be placed into a grid of cells so that each row or column contains only one of each number
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word sudoku.
Examples
-
Logic games are popular in Japan largely due to the work of Nikoli, which was founded 27 years ago, but sudoku is the only one known abroad.
Sudoku Godfather KaneCitizen 2007
-
Logic games are popular in Japan largely due to the work of Nikoli, which was founded 27 years ago, but sudoku is the only one known abroad.
Archive 2007-06-01 KaneCitizen 2007
-
For everybody who wants to try out something new in sudoku, try shendoku, using the sudoku rules but playing two people, one against the other, like battleshipps.
Sudoku Godfather KaneCitizen 2007
-
So I will post two links a day, one to the daily killer, and one to an interactive plain sudoku on the same site (as you can't get an interactive killer free on that site).
sudoku Maxine 2006
-
Today's Times killer sudoku is a real killer, I only managed to put in three "2" s today.
sudoku Maxine 2006
-
Though the name, sudoku, is Japanese, the puzzle itself was invented long ago in Switzerland.
-
Though the name, sudoku, is Japanese, the puzzle itself was invented long ago in Switzerland.
-
Print, play and solve word sudoku to learn English.
We Blog A Lot 2008
-
Microsoft says it's added "nearly 100" titles, courtesy of its Microsoft Games division, but many searches I tried ( "sudoku," "checkers," "Risk") didn't pan out.
-
Microsoft says it's added "nearly 100" titles, courtesy of its Microsoft Games division, but many searches I tried ( "sudoku," "checkers," "Risk") didn't pan out.
mollusque commented on the word sudoku
A distraction from Wordie.
November 4, 2007
sonofgroucho commented on the word sudoku
My wife is addicted to this. I regard it as The Spawn of the Devil.
November 4, 2007
kewpid commented on the word sudoku
She probably feels the same way about Wordie :P
November 5, 2007
sonofgroucho commented on the word sudoku
You may have a point there!
November 5, 2007
uselessness commented on the word sudoku
I like Sudoku. Not that it's the greatest thing ever, but it's a fun way to pass the time when you're bored..
November 6, 2007
sionnach commented on the word sudoku
the president tries his hand at sudoku
January 28, 2008
sonofgroucho commented on the word sudoku
Excellent!
January 28, 2008
qroqqa commented on the word sudoku
It's taken me this long to find out what the word comes from. It's a contraction suu-doku "single digits" of the phrase suuzi-wa dokusin-ni kagiru "the digits are restricted to single" ("digit-TOPIC single-TO restrict" – with dokusin meaning "single" as in "unmarried", a little oddly).
It began as an American puzzle called Number Place; a Japanese company later issued it as Sudoku, a trade mark in Japan, where it is generically known as nanpure, a contraction of the English name.
June 3, 2009